India's Twenty20 Leap Year

From the dysphoria in the West Indies to the euphoria of the Twenty20 WorldCup, Indian cricket oscillated between beauty and banality in yet anotherrollercoaster year that saw as much drama on-field as much off it.

The country that plunged into a mass depression after their heroes were hanged,drawn and quartered in the World Cup in the West Indies erupted in unbridled joywhen its next generation cricketers returned home with the Holy Grail from theTwenty20 World Cup in South Africa.

Off the field, it was equally, if not more, dramatic as the Board survived acoup headed by a media baron before hitting back with vengeance, fumbled whilefinding a new coach and got into numerous damage-control exercises to save itsface even though debates rage how far it succeeded in its effort.

Individually, a never-say-die Sourav Ganguly staged and consolidated what caneasily be the mother of all comebacks, Rahul Dravid abdicated the crown of thornwith Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Anil Kumble being the beneficiaries and GaryKirsten emerged out of the blue to take over the coaching reins.

For the record, India won three Test series in a row and while beating Bangladesh1-0 was not totally unexpected, the victory against England was all the moresweet for it took them more than two decades to tame the Poms at their ownbackyard.

And though some felt Shoaib Malik led arguably the weakest Pakistani side everto cross the border, beating them 1-0 after dominating the three-match seriesalso ended a 28-year-old drought of a home series win against the traditionalrivals.

On the one-day front, beating Sri Lanka and West Indies at home raised the hopesof a World Cup win before all hell broke loose and India's campaign was over asearly as in the first round.

Comprehensive wins against the Netherlands and the Windies did not indicate whatwas in store when Rahul Dravid's men took on Bangladesh. It turned out to be thetriumph of the minnow over the mighty and though a win against unheraldedBermuda kept alive their theoretical chances, eventual finalists Sri Lankaburied Indian hopes under the 22-yard strip of the Queen's Park Oval at Port ofSpain.

Greg Chappell had volunteered his head on the chopping block insisting on"process before outcome" and the blunt Australian's rollercoastertwo-year stint with Team India came to an unceremonious end, bolstering thetheory that great cricketers don't necessarily make great coaches.

Alacrity is not a word in the BCCI dictionary and the Cricket Board dragged itsheel over finding Chappell's successor. Ravi Shastri stuck to his more lucrativemedia assignments and was available only as a short-gap cricket manager for theBangladesh tour while the venerable Chandu Borde was the makeshift arrangementfor the UK trip.

Though India lost the ODI series against England and later the home seriesagainst Australia, they beat Bangladesh convincingly.

In the mean time, Dravid felt he had had enough of captaincy and it was hightime he concentrated on his batting. The popular perception, however, was thathe was not in the best of terms with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, who wasgetting more and more assertive.

Caught off guard, BCCI gift-wrapped Test captaincy to Sachin Tendulkar buthaving burnt his fingers in the past, the Little Master did not succumb to thelure and dark horse Anil Kumble landed the job.

By then, the country had seen Dhoni's spectacular rise from the cricketingbackwaters of Jharkhand to Team India captaincy both in Twenty20 and ODIs.

Success followed soon and after 24 years, India were world champions again, eventhough it was Twenty20 this time.

A side with scant experience of the format and sans the Big Three of Ganguly,Tendulkar and Dravid went all the way to win the tournament, thumbing nose atthe Aussies and cocking a snook at arch-rivals Pakistan in that high-voltagefinal.

After the abandoned opener against Scotland, India edged out Pakistan via 'BowlOut' before New Zealand halted them in the third match. Yuvraj Singh broughtIndia back on the track against England, hitting six sixes off a Stuart Broadover to immortalise himself.

South Africa was next to come under the Indian juggernaut as the Boys in Blueset up a semifinal clash with Australia.

But even the Aussies had no clue about how to stop Yuvraj, who blasted a 30-ball70 to steer the side to the final.

That Twenty20 is not for those weak at heart was more than evident in thesee-saw final where fortune fluctuated with every over. Misbah-ul-Haq, like hehad done so many times in the tournament, pulled Pakistan out of the woods andalmost snatched the match from India when a rush of blood and a moment ofmadness did him in.

Misbah played that ill-fated scoop shot off Joginder Sharma to find S Sreesanthat short fine leg as Dhoni's daredevils emulated Kapil's Devils.