India had reached a World Cup final for the first time since 1983. The build-up had been enormous and so were the expectations. I had switched off my mobile for over a month, as there was message after message announcing some contest or the other.
There were many arguments, scientific as well as cranky, put forth that India would win the World Cup. Two of them were
a) In every tournament since 1979, the cup has been held aloft alternatively by left and right handed captains.
1979 Clive Lloyd the left-hander,
1983 Kapil Dev the right hander,
1987 Allan Border,
1992 Imran Khan,
1996 Sanath Jayasuriya,
1999 Steve Waugh
2003 Ganguly.
b) India would win because Australia came into the final with a 16-match winning streak in one-dayers. When the all conquering Aussies achieved the same landmark in Tests, India stopped them dead in their tracks in Kolkata and went on to win the series.
Sony was happy that their gamble in bidding for the telecast rights paid off, the sponsors were happy that India made it to the finals and the fireworks manufacturers of Sivakasi were happy as the sales went up. The only unhappy persons in India were the mothers whose children were appearing for the 10th and 12th Standard Board exams. Many of them were happy in early February as India played the first two matches badly and the children were not too keen to watch them. But then unfortunately (for the mothers) India started playing well.
Since the finals were on a Sunday, not much preparations were needed. But not in Aarthi's place in Bangalore. Mrs. Sandhya Shankar, who manages Aarthi's PG had opened the Srishti Branch of the Bharat Army. She told all her PGs that they should wear blue, that they should paint India's colours on their faces, that all of them should bring drums and other instruments, that they should bring flags and that they should carry blue Pepsi bottle, Pizza was also ordered by her. In our house, we follow lunch/tiffin routine on Sundays. But on 23rd March, we stuck to the breakfast/lunch routine so that we could sit before the TV from 1.30 P.M. onwards without the necessity of getting up for such mundane things as food. But I am also a fan of Formula I racing and the Malaysian Grand Prix had started at about 12.40 P.M. So the first 45 minutes saw me switching channels at the end of every over. Michael Shoemacher's failure to get a podium place was perhaps an ill-omen about Tendulkar's performance.
After the toss, the ever-optimistic Srikkanth got into an argument with the cool Tony Greig about India's chances. Tony clinched the argument by asking Srikkanth just four questions,
Man for man, which is a better team? (Even Srikkanth had to admit that Sachin was the only exception)
Who is a better wicket-keeper?
Which side fields better?
Who is a better captain?
Crores of Indians all over the globe and more than 10000 Indian fans at the Wanderers in Johannesbug were shocked when Ganguly chose to field. Irrespective of his explanations, it only meant that India were already psyched out of the match. Many Indians have round faces. But the first over of Zaheer Khan which took 10 minutes and yielded 15 runs saw long faces everywhere. Gilchrist and Hayden had pushed India to the ground. Ponting and Martin started to dance over them. Amidst the flag waving, emotion swelling, song singing partisan Indian crowd which expected an innings of a lifetime from Sachin, Ricky Ponting played his very own version of the 'innings of a lifetime' theme song. He showed why Australia can afford to let go of Waugh brothers.
An innings that will serve as a perfect illustration of one of cricket's favourite terms - 'a captain's knock' saw Ponting bludgeon 140 off 121 balls with Damien Martin giving good support. Australia reached a mammoth 359/2 in 50 overs. I could only see two good spots for India in the entire three and a half hours. The first was Harbhajan's two quick wickets and the second was that we completed our 50 overs in the allotted time, which appeared impossible in the first hour.
By 5.00 PM IST, only the irrational and die-hard Indian fans (and there were plenty of them) felt India had some chance.
There's simply no way you can be expected to chase 360 against Australia in a World Cup final. Even with over 12,000 one-day runs and 34 centuries behind him, Sachin would be hard pressed to live up to expectations.
But all Indians clung on to hope.
Forget McGrath, write off Lee, there's always Tendulkar, thought the Indian fans.
India just need Sehwag to fire, Kaif to run, Dravid to steady Ganguly to persevere and Mongia to justify his captain's trust. But everything revolves around Tendulkar, for he would surely deliver the knock out punch. That's what the whole of India thought. 'Cricket is Religion and Sachin is God' read one of the banners. But Australia- and God- thought otherwise.
With mean McGrath standing at the top of his run, Tendulkar took watchful guard, establishing exactly where his off stump was and where the gaps in the field were.
Tendulkar managed an awkward pull in the fourth ball of the game. Soon the time came to get a move on. For Tendulkar to stamp his authority on the game.
A mere miscued pull was all it took, for Tendulkar's World Cup final to land in McGrath's waiting hands. While other batsmen tried hard, India's dream, if it was ever visible, ended then and there.
While Mumbai mourned, Kolkata cussed and Delhi despaired you can be sure that the celebrations went over the top from the Darling Harbour in Sydney's harbour foreshore and Southbank in Melbourne, from little Byron Bay in New South Wales to King's Park in Perth.
Spare a thought for Tendulkar. After scoring 673 runs in the tournament and fuelling India's efforts till the final, he might still be remembered for failing in the final. And cruelly enough, If India don't reach a World Cup final for the rest of Tendulkar's career, he may have to live with 4 runs in a major loss as his best effort in a World Cup final.
There is nothing much to write about the rest of the Indian innings. Ganguly came, flashed and left with a grin on his face. When the rains came, crores and crores of Indians (including yours truly) jumped with joy. The happiness was more than that of a drought-affected farmer in Kalahandi. There were predictions that India would win under Duckworth-Lewis Formula (after all how can so many earlier predictions be wrong?) But the clouds soon lifted and the Australian mean machine ensured that India was just half as good as them. The margin was exactly the score that India made in their first outing against them. We always say (jokingly) that India can never beat Pakistan in Sharjah on a Friday since it is Allah's day. Well, Sunday was Christ's (and now Ponting's) day. India can, however, take heart from the fact that of the nine teams that faced Australia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Holland and Namibia) only Zimbabwe scored more runs than India.
So the crackers remained unburst (everywhere except Mumbai, where, I believe, they went ahead). We switched of the TV after hearing Geoffry Boycott's comments and after Ricky Ponting received the World Cup. 
The sight of Ponting and his team-mates with the Australian flag at their back reminded Amritha of Santhanam and Raghu's drama efforts in Kanchipuram and we finally found something to smile that day. Life was back to normal in many Indian homes after almost 7 weeks. Thank God for the following
No more Mandira Darshan with her inane comments in the 'ek strap' innings
No more Sehwag celebrating 'Duniya mere muthi mein' (I want to make a spoof on this ad, in which the player talks to his bookie, gets out, accepts a 'pethi' and says 'Meri duniya pethi mein')
No more shots of the boy in Mumbai asking his father in Delhi to tell another story
('Papa, aap Mumbai vaapas kabhi aayenge'
'Aisa baat karega to kabhi bhi nahi aayenge')
No more 'hoodi baba' of Bajaj (I'll never buy this bike as I found this 'hoodi baba' ad to be the most irritating ever)
No more Srikkanth with his frowns, no more 'tongue-tied' Venkatesh Prasad and others.
No more silly antics of Sachin in packing off Shane Warne and Carl Hooper (they didn't need him anyway to be packed off)
But Sunday, the 23rd March 2003 was still fun. Let us now wait for 2007.
S.Parthasarathy
April 2003
I wanted to see Australia's game as a spectator in the ground.
That is exactly what the Indian team did.