World Cup India? Not on current form...

I'm betting that India will not survive the semi finals of this World Cup, if they get through the quarter finals. So far, India have beaten Ireland, Bangladesh and Netherlands. They have tied with England and lost to South Africa. There has been a consistent failure to defend any kind of total on the bowlers' part, consistent wrong captaincy decisions at critical points and no fielding prowess to speak of. There has been no spark of creativity to charge up the team.

It is not too late, however. In 2003 in South Africa, India pulled up their socks after the first 2-3 games and won everything to get to the finals. However, that effort was led by some aggressive captaincy and great bowling by the quicks. On these placid subcontinent pitches, Afridi is able to consistently take 5 wickets, and Piyush Chawla is able to consistently get hit for sixes.

Tendulkar will probably end his career as the most deserving World Cup winner to have never won. Sad, but what can one guy do in a 11 person team game?

But the rudest thing will be that India's lost Cup will be soon forgotten and all attention will turn to who is dating who during IPL 4.