'India are obviously one of the favourites'

Former captain Rahul Dravid believes the number of spinning all-rounders in the Indian team who can bowl part-time spin gives the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team an advantage in the World Cup commencing on February 19.

"India are obviously one of the favourites. They have been playing well for a number of years. It is a well-balanced side with a number of spinning all-rounders or part-time bowlers, which gives India a big advantage. Having spinning all-rounders is certainly advantage especially looking at type of pitches we have in india," said Dravid after receiving Ceat Cricket Rating World Cup Retro award after being named the top cricketer of the 1999 edition.

Dravid also feels the real tournament will start after the group stage when the quarter-finals commence with the top four teams in each of the two groups going into the knockout mode.

"Everyone knows who are going to be the quarter-finalists. The real World Cup will kick off then. I love to say India will win the Cup but any team can be dangerous from the quarter-final stages onwards," said Dravid.

Dravid said he is impressed with Dhoni's recent statement the Indian team has changed the meaning of pressure to added responsibility.

"It's a great privilege to be playing at home in front of home fans. Rather than seeing it as pressure, it should be seen as a great privilege," he said.

He also welcomed the format of the 2011 tournament and said "I wish it was there in 2007," referring to India's early elimination when he had led the team four years ago in the West Indies.

"It's a matter of peaking at the right time, keeping fit and enjoying and keeping the spirit up during the long tournament," he added.

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'I never ever doubted Tendulkar's commitment'

In a  book on Tendulkar titled 'SACH', written by noted sports scribe Gautam Bhattacharya, Chappell has recalled the entire spat but insisted that he and Tendulkar buried the hatchet within a few days of the controversy.

"At the outset let me clarify I never ever doubted Sachin Tendulkar's commitment to the side. The only time I talked about him was in relation to the team's World Cup venture. If you talk about a breakdown in relations, that possibly happened only around this time. Basically we differed on his batting order in the West Indies," Chappell said in an interview published in the book which is due to hit the stands this week.

Chappell said the conditions in the West Indies demanded a power-hitter in the middle order and the choice was between Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar. Since Sehwag refused the offer to come down the order, Tendulkar was approached who agreed reluctantly.

"It wasn't just me alone. Rahul Dravid was also involved in the thinking which felt the matches were going to get decided in those middle overs and you needed the brilliance of either a Sachin or Sehwag to play in that position," Chappell revealed.

"Sehwag didn't seem very keen. So we sat down with Sachin who in any case was the first priority. We put it down to him and he seemed reluctant. He thought top-of-the-order was the best place for him as it has always been.

But we were still in the discussion as Rahul and myself were convinced no other batsman in the team would be able to do it. Sachin finally agreed. Next day he got back to Rahul. Though he made it known that he was not happy doing it. He felt that his reputation demanded two places higher in the order," he recalled in the interview.

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Chappell finally breaks his four-year-long silence

The clock has turned full circle. Now that another World Cup beckons after four long years, the bitterness of the famous spat of the World Cup in the West Indies seems to have subsided. Two characters were involved in that drama -- Greg Chappell and Sachin Tendulkar.

At the end of it all, Chappell resigned after a controversial tenure as India's cricket coach but never has it been known as to what triggered the storm.

Just before the 2011 World Cup, Chappell, now an Australian selector finally breaks his four-year-long silence on the issue. Chappell admits, today, faced with a similar scenario he would have handled Tendulkar differently. He would have completely left it to Tendulkar to pick his own batting order.

It now emerges that the Australian wanted Tendulkar to bat in the middle order but the veteran was not too keen to relinquish his position in the top order during India's ill-fated campaign in the 2007 World Cup.

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Cricket Players Shoot For Patiala House

Cricket players from teams all across the world will be part of the cast of upcoming Bollywood film Patiala House. According to reports in the media, former and current players of cricket had to be roped in for a shot in Patiala House which shows lead actor Akshay Kumar playing as part of the World Cup cricket team of England. Some of the cricketers who have made it to the cast of Patiala House are Wasim Akram, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Graham Gooch, Herschelle Gibbs, Brendon McCullum, Kamran Akmal, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Nasir Hussain to name a few.

It was on the insistence of director Nikhil Advani that the producers of the film decided to bring some of the greatest cricketers of the world on board of Patiala House. The upcoming Bollywood venture which shows Akshay Kumar in the role of a pace bowler also stars actress Anushka Sharma as his love interest and Rishi Kapoor in the role of his father. Akshay Kumar plays a cricketer of the England national cricket team in Patiala House.

In a statement to the media, Nikhil Advani said that though cricket is a very important part of the film, it is not essentially a sports-oriented movie. On the contrary, Patiala House tells the story of a father-son bonding with cricket serving as the catalyst.

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