My Worldcup Memories....

I was about an year old when India won the Cricket World cup....Like any other Indian, Cricket was in my blood from the time i learned to hold a bat...I don't remember the 1987 world cup...But I have some memories of the 1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup. One day when I came back from school, India was playing Pakistan...the scores and the situation escape my memory but Imran Khan was just coming in to bat when I arrived...With typical childish knowledge, I declared..If Imran goes for a duck, India will win...and thats how it happened....Imran was out for a duck and India won the game...The next memory I have of a world cup is also an India Pakistan encounter...you know how that clash means the world to both countries...This was the Ajay Jadeja's destruction of Waqar Younis in the 1996 world cup..I remember being devastated when Sachin got out in the semi final (Well I feel devastated every time Sachin gets out..)...The 1999 world cup was more closely followed...that being after my 12th standard exams....Memories from that include..India's 373 against Sri Lanka in Taunton, with Sourav Ganguly scoring 183 and having a 300+ run partnership with Rahul Dravid...I remember being torn between wanting them to bat on and having a wicket fall and have Sachin come in....I remember being baffled in the India- Zimbabwe game as to why Sachin was not there...I remember Sachin's hundred against Kenya after he came back from his father's funeral...But of all these, the world cup I would cherish the most (the same might be the case with almost all the fans of my age) was the 2003 edition...I love it the most not because of India's progression till the finals...But for one man's mastery over the rest...Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar at his best...Thrashing Akhtar over the point boundary.....Hooking Andrew Caddick out of the ground...Missing 2 centuries for the want of 5 runs...Maybe fate thought it all was getting too perfect...I don't have any memories to share of the ongoing world cup, mostly owing to the fact that I have not seen a game in its entirety....No motivation to stay awake till 3.30 in the morning...I hope the last 2 games left will do something to redeem it....