India can win the World Cup in South Africa. Time and again our current team is being compared to the one which won the World Cup in 1983. Personally, I don’t like to make any comparisons, it would be unfair to the present bunch of boys. We have a good team and it has got a lot of strength. We have the best player in the world cricket in Sachin Tendulkar, the best strokeplayer in Virender Sehwag, the most reliable batsman in Rahul Dravid and the most magnetic and attractive skipper in Saurav Ganguly to lead the side. What’s more, we are also one of the most experienced teams when it comes to one-day cricket. Our boys have to really play out of their shoes if they want to win the Cup. It’s not difficult. Ours is a very solid team. The one difference between the World Cup in 1983 and now in 2003 is that nobody used to ask so many questions from us at that time. Cricket has really grown a lot in our country since the last two decades and the credit for it goes to media. However, pin-pointing team’s negative points at this stage will not do any good to the confidence of our players in South Africa. I don’t know why questions are being raised about about the capability of our bowlers. It’s our batting and not bowling which has always been our strength. Though it would have been better if our team had a couple of more all-rounders. I don’t want to get involved in the debate surrounding the opening slot. The selectors have selected the best team and it’s the job of the captain and the team management to decide on the finer points. All the players are keen to perform well and win the World Cup for the country. I am a positive thinker and at the moment full support from everybody is what the team needs right now and we should back them in full strength. Just imagine when we won the World Cup in 1983, the odds against our team was 1:66 wheras this team has 1:5 or 1:4. Isn’t that superb? Think positive. We can do it again. (As told to Ateet Sharma)
