Cricket Team of India

Being a colony of the British kingdom, cricket came early to India and is the passion of every Indian. Indians are lions at home where they tame the best of the bests. But the roles are reversed when they venture out of the subcontinent. They have struggled to register wins and even a single victory is considered a great achievement, leave aside a series win. The biggest moment of glory for India came at the world cup in 1983 when a young spirited Indian side led by Kapil Dev defeated the mighty West Indian team in the finals to lift the world cup. They became only the second team to win the cup after West Indies. That sparked of a revolution were after every kid was having a cricket bat or a ball in his hands. Cricket became more popular in India and players became as popular as film stars. Cricket became a religion and the board started to rake up some serious money. Indian cricket team along with their arch rivals Pakistan are the most unpredictable teams in contemporary cricket. They play like champions one day but play the most ridiculous cricket on the other. India has produced some of the best batsmen and spin bowlers of all time. Bishan singh bedi, prasanna, Chandrasekhar and venkataraghavan were great spinners who were india’s only hope on foreign soil. But Anil kumble is the one bowler who has won India more matches than any other who has played for the team. Yet unlike others he has never liked being in limelight and has downplayed his achievement. He is india’s highest wicket taker in tests and still goes on and on. India has produced some excellent batsmen none more excellent than sunil gavaskar and sachin tendulkar, the two little masters. They were India’s pride during their respective tenures. Other greats include dileep vengsarkar, mohinder amaranth, Mohamed azharuddin, rahul dravid, sourav ganguly and many more. In kapil dev India had one of the finest all rounders and a captain who led the team to their greatest triumph. Cricket Team of India struggled in late nineties due to lack of good leadership and the match fixing row which found azharuddin and few others guilty. Sourav ganguly was given the captaincy and he led the Indian teams to heights never reached before. With dravid as deputy the Indian team under ganguly was perhaps the best team India had ever produced. But serious lack of form and a spat with coach greg chappell meant that ganguly was out of the team for an year. But he fought his way back into the team and now is an integral member of the Indian team under the leadership of dravid. The composition of the team has changed over the years with almost no spinners to follow the legacy of the spinners and more and more youngsters taking up pace bowling. The team under dravid achieved what only a few other Indian teams had achieved before test match victories in foreign soil. They made history winning a series in west indies and a test match in south Africa. But the humiliating first round exit at the 2007 world cup created a stir among people about the credibility of players but dravid with his usual calm and composure has weathered the storm and is in the process of making this team a match-winning one.