Growing up in a country where cricket is a passion obviously meant that most children in India grew up with iconic cricketing figures as their role models , be it Sunil Gavaskar, who broke Sir Don Bradman's record of scoring maximum centuries in Test cricket, or Kapil Dev under whose leadership India won the first World Cup in 1983 by beating the West Indies fancied and favorites with the best pace attack of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner, the best opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, the best middle order of vice-captain Sir Vivian Richards and captain Clive Lloyd with Larry Gomes, Gus Logie and Jeff Duzon. Against all odds, India successfully defended the modest total of 183 runs and beat favorites and two-time world champions West Indies. Under the captaincy of Sunil Gavaskar, India won the Benson and Hedges World Series by defeating Pakistan in the final. India lost the 1987 World Cup semi-final against England, as Greham Gooch applied a sweep shot to good effect against the Indian spinners. The arrival of Saurav Ganguly as Indian captain has brought more vigor and competitiveness to Indian cricket. India lost the 2003 World Cup final to favorites Australia under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting and with star players like Adam Gilchrist, Hayden, Martyn, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Then came the last World Cup 2011 where India under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, acclaimed as the best captain in the history of Indian cricket, defeated reigning world champions Australia in the quarter-finals at Ahmedabad, Pakistan in the semi-final in Mohali and Sri Lanka in the final in Bombay. The winning shot, a huge six hit by captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni, erased forever the unpleasant memory of the Sharjah Cup final defeat where, off the last ball, Pakistan needed four runs for victory , Chetan Sharma bowled a full toss to Javed Miadad which Miadad hit for a six and India lost the match. Cricket has sporting rivalries like Ashes between Australia and England and in the subcontinent the famous rivalry is India vs Pakistan with India having the record of not losing a single match World Cup against Pakistan till date. Our generation is lucky, even though we were we were not born in the era of Sir Don Bradman, but we were lucky enough to witness the genius of the great Sir Sachin R. Tendulkar. The presence of Sachin Tendulkar has always given assurance to cricket fans in India and around the world that India is capable of chasing any target or setting a winning goal..