Indian team departs for WI with hopes of billions

Mumbai, Mar 01: The Indian cricket team led by Rahul Dravid left for the West Indies from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in the wee hours of today to take part in the 2007 World Cup, carrying with them the hopes and prayers of a billion ardent fans.

The 15-member squad will start its World Cup campaign with a game against Bangladesh on March 17. Prior to that, it will play two warm up games on March 6 and 9 against The Netherlands and West Indies respectively.

India, after two home series wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka, have the winning momentum and as the coach said yesterday, the preparations are all over and only the execution of our plans in the middle is left.

The team: Rahul Dravid (c), Sachin Tendulkar (v-c), Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (w-k), Dinesh Karthick, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Anil Kumble, S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan.

Coach: Greg Chappell, Physio: John Gloster, Physical Trainer: Gregory King, Bio-mechanist: Ian Frazer, Managers: Sanjay Jagdale, M P Pandove, Travel Assistant: Russell V Radhakrisnan.

UNI