Kapil Dev said that the maestro should win the WC for his countrymen. The media hype that the Indian team should consecrate the WC to Sachin as a parting gift will only put pressure on Sachin !
If you put pressure on one player and if he has a bad day in office, the team chokes. And the last thing we want is chokers.
When a billion eyes are riveted on you on TV, when your performance is watched by every man in the street, you are undoubtedly under pressure. Why add more pressure by dreaming ?
Before 1983, India was faring badly in sports. Psychologists attribute this 'phenomenon' to the fact that India was ruled by the British Empire and the Mughal Empire. The onslaught of two mighty civilisations ! An inferiority complex had crept into the Indian psyche. If not for some illustrious sages, Indian culture, philosophy and sciences would have gone into oblivion ! To overcome this inferiority complex, this massive pressure in the mind, they needed success as nothing succeeds like success !
It is said that after 1983, Indian cricket was never the same again. From London, cricket travelled Eastwards and found a commercial home in India. The 1983 victory came as a big relief to a suppressed nation, who had no excellence in sports, barring hockey. (Even in hockey, they had come down in world rankings). Indian industry and Bollywood, politicians and the men in the street seized this opportunity and the tag of world champions to catapult India as a world cricketing power to be reckoned with !
200 million TV households today mean more than half a billion viewers. Advertisers find this an enormous audience to broadcast their ads. Hence ad revenues are peaking Gate collections are rising, as more people are interested in the shorter versions of the game. A WC ticket is priced at 4800 INR or 3800 INR. Even for IPL, tickets are above 1000 INR onwards! Sony got the WC telecast rights for $2 b and Nimbus IPL rights for $ 1 billion !
This is an even Cup. Look at SA. They beat Australia by 9 wickets. This is the second consecutive defeat of Australia. But no problem. Australia is Australia and they will sort out their problems.
When we do SWOTs of all teams, we find that they are all balanced. Eight teams will participate in the quarter finals and the team which gives the most consistent performance - three great days in office - wins the Cup !
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