Believe us, this Indian team is hardly capable of lifting that ever-loving Cup. If you really want the team to win badly, you have to remember that their real talent lies in losing badly.

Anyway, cheer up!! There's always 2003 and the possibility of banding together a group of cricketers who have the game on their minds rather than the next ad they'll be filming.

Heck!! Forget the lowlights. Jaal has put together its own highlights for this tournament.

Here goes…..

1. The Awesome LG-Samsung Stand-Off: These South Koreans would have trouble pronouncing the name of the game, leave alone playing it. But here they are, all patriotic frenzy. You wouldn't even see so much gratuitous flag-waving on Independence Day. They've bombarded television with advertisements to sell more televisions to watch their advertisements on.

2. The Second Pepsi-Coke International: In 1996, Pepsi gloried in not being the anointed sponsor of the Cup and quite stole Coke's thunder with its slogan `Nothing official about it'. This time, they are the official sponsors and bubbling over with joy. Their cup brimmeth over. Coke can only snort in response.

3. The Hero Honda-Bajaj Race: The two-wheeler twosome is out to garner greater mileage from this tournament. So with Hero Honda the official motorcycle for the Cup (whatever for? We thought the Indian squad slunk away in the team bus), Bajaj describes itself as the official carrier of the Indian fan. Then again, we'll have to see whether the Indian consumer gets carried away.

4. Doordarshan-Star Sports/ESPN Live: DD, being a Government organ, has messed everything up, chagng from Stracon to Nimbus, but still under a cloud. Right now, the official channel is trying hard to figure out how many advertisements it can squeeze into a day's telecast. So who cares even if the viewer has to watch four-ball overs. ESPN-Star have inundated their channels with cricket, more cricket, and just in case the monotony was getting to you, just a little more cricket. They have even created a mascot of sorts - Apple Singh. Is that because the Indian team is rotten to the core? Or because `Lemon' would have been a bit too direct?

5. The Close Up-Colgate Face-Off: Responsible for those cheesy smiles our players wear even when the team requires 88 runs off one ball. Actually, those grins have more to do with those scrumptious thoughts of all the moolah these toothpaste panderers will cough up to our model-cricketers.

By the way, we at Jaal, take pride in our status as the official non-sponsors of the Indian World Cup Squad. Just because we are broke to sponsor bus tickets doesn't mean we can be deprived of our glory!!