The World Cup is back in India so one can expect high levels of excitement from a cricket-crazy nation. But more than the excitement, all we can see is a huge mountain of expectations being laden on the Indian team and especially the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar. The cricket fans of India have subconsciously assumed that India will lift the trophy with the help of Tendulkar.

Expecting your team to win the cup is natural and there’s nothing wrong in it. However, having a pre-occupied notion that India will reach the final and win it and not ready to accept or expect any other result can have dire consequences.

One should not forget that there are 14 teams participating in the World Cup. Out of these, six teams, apart from India, stand a chance of winning the cup. But it seems people of India feel that the rest of the 13 teams are as good as Canada or Netherlands, judging by the way they are expecting India to win.

And Tendulkar has never had such a huge load of expectations from the public as he is having right now. We should also not forget that although he is considered as God of cricket, he is a human being after all.

Right now, people are buying Indian team’s t-shirts in large number and displaying their support in every manner possible. However, God forbid if India fails to lift the trophy, the same people will burn effigies of the team while giving all kinds of filthy abuses. We have witnessed such terrible and shameful scenes during the last few world cups.

Even though maximum numbers of cricket fans are in India, there are very few who understand the game and are ready to accept any result by being a true fan of the game and a true supporter of team India.

I understand there is a huge amount of disappointment after India loses but why can’t we be open minded and accept that it’s a game where one team has to lose? If we are true supporters of team India then why we can’t show support when our team loses since that is the time when they need maximum support? Being a true supporter of team India, I will pray for our team but I am also ready to accept any result.

The schedule for the 2011 World Cup – (taken from http://cricket.yahoo.com)