India's small-town wonders

[In the small-town Indian, there is] an absence of a history of failure in the psyche — there never was much opportunity before the 1990s, and there was, consequently, no great failure. Dhoni’s life would have been successful enough if he’d only played cricket for the Railways and worked as a ticket collector ... Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar isn’t surprised at the emergence of the confident, small-town superstar. He believes it’s a linear growth that occurred due to two important developments of the last 40-odd years—banking and communications spreading their networks into the hinterland. "Something sensational like cricket had to come to make us aware of this reality, that small-town India is confident and surging ahead,” he says.

"They are different because they are original, as far as their cricketing style is concerned ... In places like Ranchi, Mahi [Dhoni] tells me that cricket facilities were a bare minimum. Look at him or Munaf now, they have their own playing style. Dhoni used to play football and that’s made him faster and stronger. Players from smaller towns sacrifice a bit more to develop their cricketing skills. They are more motivated about making it big."

This is Indian cricket’s greatest triumph, mainly because this team was not the strongest Indian team ever but played like the best Indian team ever. It is quite incredible when you look at India’s bowling attack and its general fielding ability. Those were two massive weaknesses that Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to contend with right through the six-week-long tournament. India’s bowling was about just one world-class bowler in Zaheer Khan ... This win has also thrown out the window that theory or cliche — to win 50-over matches you need to be a great fielding side. Two teams have won the World Cup with poor fielding — Pakistan did in 1992, India in 2011.