Wednesday, 26th September 2007 at 3:21 pm

Indian cricketers return as heroes

It might seem a crazy statement right now, but Feverpitcher is very happy not to be an Indian cricketer. Mahendra Dhoni and his world-conquering Twenty20 squad have returned home, and India has gone suitably berserk, showering the squad in praise, adulation and screaming approval, of the sort usually reserved for Bollywood stars or Sachin Tendulkar.

That Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, India’s big three, weren’t part of the mission to South Africa, only emphasises the shock victory of a team not expected to walk away with the trophy; Feverpitcher is more interested in the crazed reception, and the comparison it bares to the reception the Indian team received post-World Cup, when the Caribbean exit sparked the warmth of welcome in India that American troops tend to get in Baghdad.

Team India will be the toast of the country for the immediate future, and Dhoni will have plenty of emotional support as successor to Dravid as permanent skipper (serious questions over his ability to both ‘keep and captain - which he’d have to, as he couldn’t justify a place in the top six - notwithstanding), but it’ll only take a slip up in the next series to send public sentiment roaring to the other end of the emotional scale. India were outstanding in the Twenty20 World Championship, certainly - but that will only mean an even greater level of expectation in India.