The cup of joy...brimmeth over!!

The cup of life, this is the one.

Now is the time, don't ever stop

Push it along, gotta be strong.

Push it along, right to the top

And when you feel the heat.

The world is at your feet

No one can hold you down.

If you really want itJust steal your destiny.

Right from the hands of fateReach for the cup of life.

'Cause your name is on it...Do you really want it...(YEAH)

Do you really want it...(YEAH)!!!!

Cricket Matters ...and how!!! Why am I writing this blog? What is special about another Cup? Well, I hadn't previously witnessed the kind of euphoria in the city that followed India's victory. Not just in Bangalore, but across the globe, thanks to the Indian diaspora spread across all continents...they gladdened over a billion hearts.Sonia Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya and Abhishek, Aamir Khan and so many icons were on the streets celebrating the World Cup win The champagne bottles were uncorked at the Wankhede Stadium Saturday night, but the bubbly flowed till the early hours of Sunday across the world. April 2nd 2011, history repeated itself, we are world champions today in tests, 50-overs and 20-overs format of the games too, so there! 1983 was repated not just in calender days (eerie huh? the coincidence) but 28 years later India joined the West Indies and Australia as a nation to win the Cup more than once! Cricket India has come of age...the rite of passage has been a long and tortuous one but the scaling of the peak was exhilarating beyond belief ! India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium to replicate their 1983 World Cup triumph. It is not that India suddenly came up to win the World Cup. There is a reason why they won it. They have been on the rise in the last few years. They have the all-round depth. India's World Cup victory was no fluke. It was a clinical decimation of a worthy opponent who man to man and ball to ball, were equal to the task too. But the better team won. This team is gritty, buckles down to do its job and is not a bunch of individuals who are brilliant in a stand alone fashion, they are that too, but more importantly they think and move like a well oiled machine. This is the difference between the team of today and of yore. The early dismissal of Sachin and Sehwag brought about a deafening silence in the stadium but Gambhir with Sachin and then Dhoni, collected runs abd built up the partnerships beautifully. They did not allow the run chase or the occassion to overwhelm them. I admire this gutsy attitude, one that winners are made of. As they say 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going'. I remember the 90s, when Sachin got out, we would switch off our TV sets, because it was all over, but today...this team is different, they are all full of a self - belief and confidence unheard of earlier. This is a changing India - a resurgent India, we are seeing it in all spheres, we saw the medals won by our athletes in the Olympics, we see the tennis stars, Chess, billiards, golf...in business too, recession or not, India Inc bounced back faster than the rest of the world, Hollywood actors coming down to act in Bollywood films, well... India is surging ahead. When a ticket checker from Ranchi who a few years back watched Sachin play adoringly, can become the skipper and get his team to gift Sachin the one trophy which had eluded him for 21 years...it underscores the changing India...an India we can be proud of ! Virat Kohli, the youngest team member at 22 years said "He's carried Indian cricket for 21 years. It's time we carried him for a while too." while hoisting the lil master on to his shoulders and echoed all our sentiments!

The team batted and bowled out of their skins but if there was one single aspect which was awesome, it was their fielding, they fielded like demons, sliding, diving, jumping and saved a good 30 to 35 runs which made a tremendous difference. We won defying various homilies which had survived decades but were broken last night - we won despite being the host country, we won despite a player scoring a century in the opposite camp and we won chasing a score of over 250 ... so we won convincingly shattering all these myths. Yes, there were the usual hiccups and watching India is not for the faint hearted as they tend to unearth impossible scares, yet they were the champions yesterday, more so because they believed they were! Like a friend of mine said "What an incredibly tense match. I've aged 12 years tonight- I feel like a single malt" Hahaha!! It was an evening of brilliance and what won was the human spirit and the spirit of a new India who believe they are world beaters and go on to do so! Chak De India! This is the best time to be in India and savour the spirit of rejuvenation and hope that this fabulous self belief will peter down to the one sphere which badly needs a shot in the arm - politics ! and clean up that mess too, so we can be the India we deserve! Go, India, Go!!! The 11 who made India proud - Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni(C), Yuvraj, Virat, Raina, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Sreesanth and Munaf.