Potential Champs

I see a lot of similarity in this side to the one I captained in the WorldCup triumph of 1996. It starts at the top and Robin Uthappa showcases thefeel-good factor. I was really charmed by his stroke play in recent weeks.

Uthappa and Virender Sehwag are the team's openers in my book. Rahul Dravid shouldoccupy the position I did in the 1996 campaign -- hence his slot is between YuvrajSingh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Only a player of his quality can shift the gearsso effortlessly.

True, a lot of other things go into making a champion side. You need to be anextremely smart fielding side; in a long campaign such as this, the longest-everconsistency will be critical as well as the number of injuries you canavoid.

India in my estimation would take something to be beaten. Rahul Dravid is afine captain and he must let his match-winners, the Tendulkars and Sehwags, Gangulysand Yuvrajs perform with freedom. They must be unfettered for their creativityto take the centrestage.

As a captain, Dravid needs to get the maximum out of his men, even a percent's loss of their ability wouldn't reflect well on him. It should be true notjust of the 11 but all 15 members of the squad.

Luck is no small issue either -- even in our campaign in 1996, we were verylucky to lose the toss in Kolkata in the semi-finals. I would have surelyfielded had we won the toss. Fortunately, it was the lot of the Indians to batsecond on a crumbling pitch on that fateful evening.

As I see it, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand will be thesemi-finalists in this edition. Sri Lanka, because it's bowling attack is betterthan it was in 1996. Chaminda Vaas and Muthiah Muralitharan need no introductionand Lasith Malinga could be the flavour of the team's campaign.

I still feel they should have had Upul Chandana and Nuwan Zoysa in the squadfor in a campaign of this order, you need members who can fulfill more than onerole -- an all-round side and that's one invariable the best sides of differenteras have shown.

Australia you can never discount. They didn't have 5-6 of their best playersin New Zealand and I sometimes wonder if it was pure bluff or real fatigue andother issues which kept them away. But now all of them, except Brett Lee, willbe back and they would be a force to reckon with. Australia has it in them towin four of five of their Super Eight games, an essential to qualify for thesemi-finals.

I would have had South Africa as the fourth semi-finalist but for adisturbing trait they show in big tournaments. They crumble in big matches. I amalso not convinced about their bowlers as match-winners. Shaun Pollock onaverage tracks is no longer a force -- I see only Jacques Kallis and HerschelleGibbs as their true match-winners.

New Zealand on the other hand are blessed with that essential quality ofall-round ability -- their batting runs deep and there is really no tail-ender.They also though suffer from the big-match syndrome and hopefully their recentrun of successes would take care of such inconsistencies.

Pakistan's has been a curious and sad case. They have a very strong middleorder and there was a good mix of all-round cricketers, but bowling has taken abeating in the absence of Abdul Razzaq and now Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.If the word about the absence of the last two from the squad is true then theyalone are to be blamed for it. It has hurt their team badly.

The West Indies will be the dark horse who can upset the applecart of the bestsides. They are a top-notch fielding side and have a good mix of youth andexperience. Chris Gayle and Brian Lara will hold the key to their fortunes. They toosuffer from inconsistency as we all know and it can stop them in their tracks.If they were to start well, and in this context their opening game againstPakistan on March 13 would be the key, they could be unstoppable.

England, despite their impressive wins against Australia this year, don'tappear to be contenders yet. But it was very impressive to see the spirit ofthe side in the final weeks of the one-day series in Australia after the maulingthey had in the Ashes.

Spirit can do wonders and if they were to remember the lesson, they would bealright.