Indian Cricket

Without any doubts I can safely say that the current Indian team has shown the best performance among all Indian team over the ages, and enjoys the best rank , not by any Samsung or CEAT or Wisden rating but just a general gut ranking .

I have been watching cricket religiously over the last 17 years, and I have never seen the national team perform so well and being held in such high regard by opposition teams.

Though the current Indian team has performed well and has world class talent,but I believe that world over, all teams are less strong than they were 5 years back, for example take Australia, 5 years back the Waugh twins, Shane and McGrath were in full cry; for Pak the 2 Ws, Saeed Anwar, Saqlain, Mushtaq, for South Africa, Hansie, Donald, Klusener, Pollock, Jonty for SL, Jayasuriya, Murali, Aravinda and I can go on.

I guess all countries have their crests and troughs of talent , and currently India is riding the crest while others are on the trough or yet to peak, so we should make the most of it. Going by current form and a two-three year forecast we seem to be the best placed to take the 07' WC.

That should be the last hurrah for the Sachin-Ganguly-Dravid generation, though maybe they will continue playing but I dont foresee any of them sticking till the 2011 WC.

The Indian transformation is generally credited to Ganguly, it is correct to a certain extent, but I believe the maturing of Dravid and Sachin has played a major part in it, as well as the young Gen-Xers like Yuvi , Sehwag, Zaheer,Bhajji. I admit Gangs, has shown faith in them given them oppurtunities, but these guys innately also have great motivation and talent that would have surfaced nevertheless, so in a sense Ganguly is also riding the surf. five to eight years ago if Ganguly had worked with guys such as Somasunder, Neil Johnson, Noel david, then come what may he couldnt have brought about the success story of today.