Though the National game of India is Hockey but Cricket is craze among Indian public. People follow this game like a religion. Many people might not be able to name the Captain of Indian Hockey Team but they know the name of a player who is playing his first match in cricket. Fortunately or unfortunately, as Indians are not able to excel any other game except cricket, hence the pressure is more on them to win almost every possible match. Be it media, any corporate house, politicians, everybody like to get associated with this game in one form or the other.

Again, we are in those days, where life is going to become standstill. People will take off's from their office. There will be more fights and arguments between husband and wife for TV. Yes, there will be Cricket World-cup to be held in West Indies in the first half of this year. Though there will be 16 teams competing in this world-cup, the key contenders for the world-cup are: Australia, England, West Indies, NewZeland, Pakistan, India, Westindies, South Africa, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe.

Squad and Team for this World-cup

My Squad for Cricket World-Cup 2007,

1) Sachin Tendulkar

2) Sourav Ganguly

3) Gautam Gambhir

4) Rahul Dravid

5) Yuvraj Singh

6) Mohd. Kaif

7) M. S Dhoni

8) Dinesh Kartick

9) Zaheer Khan

10) Sreesanth

11) Ishant Sharma

12) Anil Kumble

13) Romesh Powar

14) Ajit Agarkar

15) Robin Uthappa

16) Virendra Sehwag

My playing eleven for any given match (In bating order)

1) Saurav Ganguly

2) Sachin Tendulkar

3) MS Dhoni

4) Rahul Dravid

5) Gautam Gambhir

6) Yuvraj Singh

7) Mohd. Kaif

8) Ajit Agarkar

9) Zaheer Khan

10) S. Sreesanth

11) Anil Kumble

Memories of Last World-Cup

The memories of last world-cup held in South Africa in 2003, are still fresh in the mind of people and why not Indian team reached the final of the cup after a gap of 20 years. Though in final, we lost comprehensively to Australia. Everybody played to the best of the abilities but somehow failed to cross the final hurdle. But to whom would you like to blame for that? We don't have to blame any external factor, not even our team but only "we, the people of India" and to very large extent…our Visual Media.

Among the readers of this article, how many of us are able to work under pressure? How many to us are able to perform well, when there are high expectations? How many have excelled well, when there is high pressure? I don't think that any of you will give positive reply. So, what was you expecting from the team with an average age of 27 years, when there was pressure of the expectations of 100 crore people? Yes, our team failed and surrendered to that pressure and stress.

Role of Media in 2003 World-Cup and Expectations in this World-Cup of 2007

Whenever there is a cricket match, involving Indian Team, our NEWS Channels get diet for the day. They have nothing to do but appraise our players by sitting in the studio; criticize the performance of some players; go ga-ga over others' performance and do unwarranted, senseless and illogical comparison. That is what happened last time. Some of sports journalist of leading NEWS Channels , like Star News, NDTV, Aajtak et al, went to the houses of team players…interacted with their family members; brought Astrologists, Numerologist and all such people to their studios and they did nothing, other than building the pressure on the team. Those channels are just interested in their TRP rates and nothing, just nothing else. What happened after that…the Team India failed to cross the final hurdle. When our team reached the final, people back at home, started celebrations before even watching the final match.

I still remember that evening, all shops were closed. There were very few vehicles on the road and life was just standstill.

Let's not make those mistakes again. Let's hold ourselves and our celebrations till the last ball is bowled. We have very bright chance and one of our best chances to win this world-cup.

There is a lot of pressure, when people play in front of so many people. There is an unwanted pressure when someone represents his or her country at that level. There is a pressure to succeed…to be successful…to win for country. So, my entire Journalist friends' please, don't build that extra pressure on our team, by sitting in studios; don't give our players that extra stress and tensions. In other words, please don't do anything that you don't want other's to do to you.

Even after 60 years of independence, we are still considered as "Developing Country". We need to do so many other things. There are so many areas to concentrate on. There is lot to do to come in the category of "Developed Nation". Let's concentrate on that.

India, a country of 100 crores, is not about some 5000 odd politicians, some 300 odd movie starts and some 30 cricketers. India is much more than that. Still, there are villages where there is no electricity; there are areas where there are no healthcare facilities, no schools, and no education facilities. There are people who stay in slims, footpaths, they don't have enough avenues to earn as much to eat thrice in a day. Let's concentrate on that. Let's bring the attention of powerful and influential people to such matters.

Looking forward to your comments and feedback,