Proverbs have always been an integral part of the English lexicon. We are taught these at an early stage of our lives and as life progresses we realize how they always stand out to be true. Every cloud in life does come with a silver lining and yes, every time a window of oppurtunity closes, another one does open up.For sport, as in life the proverbs stand true as well. But none more than - ‘make hay while the sun shines’. Pete Sampras did it 14 times at the grand slams, Roger Federer is doing it now. Jack Nicklaus did it 18 times at the majors, Tiger Woods is doing it now. Michael Schumacher did it 7 times and Fernando Alonso has already done it twice. And this is where I think Indian cricket has missed the bus.

Over the past decade and more, India had the luxury of having three of the best exponents of the trade playing at the same time. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly have been the backbone of the Indian team. As India gets ready for life without them, albeit temporarily, it is time to look back and see if India’s achievements as a team justify the talent and personal achievements of the famed trio.

Sachin Tendulkar made his debut for India as a child prodigy in the early winter of 1989. Eighteen years later, the little ‘boy’ has gone on to become the little ‘master’ with fifteen thousand runs in tests and another elevn thousand in the shorter format. Add to this 78 international hundreds and you know who has been the most dominating cricketer in the world over that period.

Rahul Dravid announced his arrival in international arena at the Mecca of cricket. Lords cricket ground witnessed classy innings -which gave enough indication that this man will be ‘the wall’ of Indian batting.

A hundred and twelve test matches later India’s greatest number three batsman is often talked about as the world’s best as well.

On the off side first there is god, then Sourav Ganguly. This is what Rahul Dravid had said about ‘The Prince of Kolkatta’.

With a one day record second only Sachin in the Indian team the, the Kolkattan has also been one of the most successful Indian captains ever.

Sachin has been playing for India for eighteen years, while Rahul and Sourav came into prominance after 1996. A look at India’s record after november 1996, the time when all three were playing together, shows that India have lost a golden oppurtunity to be the best team in the world in the past decade.

India have won only 36 tests of the 109 it has played since November 1996 till date, and only 178 of the 360 one day games in the same period. During this period the three stalwarts of Indian batting got 54, 786 runs in both forms of the game and 132 centuries between them.

With those figures the best that India reached at the world stage was the finals of the cricket world cup in 2003. Add to this the fact that India’s most successful bowler, Anil Kumble picked up 443 test and 197 one day wickets in the same period.

With those individual performances, India should have definitely won more than they did. Let’s compare this to the world champions Australia. During the same period (from November 1996 - till date), the top three Australian batsmen have been Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist.

They have scored 52,080 runs and 110 centuries betwwen them. Also the differnce between Shane Warne’s performance during that period and that of Anil Kumble is not much. Warne has picked up 501 test and 194 one day victims.

The big difference though has been the in the victories of the teams. Australia have won 210 of the 305 one dayers they played in this period and 88 of the 129 tests. Add to this tthree consecutive world cups and the Champions trophy last year. They have put every available trophy in their cabinet.

With a much better record for the batsmen and not much seperating their most successful bowlers, India should have been able to match Australia’s record, if not better it.

Amongst the many proverbs that we were taught, there was always extra emphasis on - ‘where there is a will, there is way’ - may be its all in the will.