It is an occasion that calls for hyperbole and history. As a nation revels in India's World Cup triumph, then, here is a cricketing twist to Jawaharlal Nehru's landmark freedom speech he gave on August 14, 1947.u00a0

"More than 20 years ago, 28 to be precise, India's cricket team made a tryst with destiny, and in 2011 the time came when they repeated that not partly but in full measure.u00a0

Before the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, Indian cricket stepped up to lift the spirit of a nation. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in sporting history, when we step out from the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the cricketing soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

Before the stroke of the midnight, when the world sleeps, Indian cricket stepped up to lift the spirit of a nation

At the dawn of this World Cup 2011, India started on her quest, and path was filled with striving, the euphoria of her successes and the despair of failure. Through good and ill fortune alike, she never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. On Saturday, she ended a period of drought and Indian
cricket discovered itself again.

The achievement that we celebrated at the Wankhede is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Before this win Indian cricket had witnessed the pains of coming so close to the Cup and seeing it slip away and hearts were heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Nevertheless, the past is over and it is in the present that we rejoice and the future that beckons to us now.