Team India leave with high hopes and burden of expectations

The players themselves did not believe they had the wherewithal to conquer the world and were thus able to perform without the added pressure of a billion expectations.

The triumphant run of that team — despite a few hiccups on the way — has since transformed the lukewarm interest of the fans in the one-day game into something akin to religious following.

It is this extreme pressure that Dravid’s team will have to surmount as well as the tough opposition on the field in the West Indies to make its tryst with eternal glory. Anything less than a title triumph will be considered a failure, perhaps unfairly, by the vast majority of the fanatic followers of the game in the country.

Four years ago the Indian cricketers, many of whom are part of the present squad, had a bitter experience of what a poor run could lead to in the form of a violent backlash from fans back home.

Coach Greg Chappell and captain Dravid have built a squad that seems well-rounded in batting and bowling, with a fair number of players keen and available to perform multiple tasks, somewhat similar to the utility members of Kapil Dev’s 1983 team.

India, pooled in Group B with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bermuda, start their Cup campaign with a tie against Bangladesh at Port-of-Spain on March 17 after playing warm-up games against The Netherlands (March 6) and West Indies (March 9).