Brits having that over the moon feeling

England has done it at long last. It must be all celebrations and every Brit must be basking in the glory of England being the top dogs in the world of Test cricket by convincingly beating and dethroning India in the Test series which ended in England.

Other than for winning the Twenty20 title under Paul Collingwood, England has never won the 50 over World Cup nor have they become the top Test playing nation in the world. But after their success down under where they beat the Aussies in the Ashes series and now India, they have finally realized their dream and fully deserve the honour.

But Andrew Strauss and his men will do well to remember that it is easy to get to the top, but it will be a struggle to remain there, because every other team will be envying their success and will be determined to topple them from that perch. This augurs well for the future of Test Cricket which lacked the sparks that we have now seen. At long last! When the strong Indians arrived in England, the predictions were that it was going to be a series to remember. Indians arrived after a successful run against the West Indies in the Caribbean and being the World Champions they were expected to play the better cricket and maintain their status.

Home conditions

But as the series unfolded, England making use of the home conditions played the better cricket by far. And what finally happened is history now with England outplaying India and sending them tumbling to defeat in all four games and dethroning them as World Champions.

England had got their strategy right. In every Test they had a plan against every Indian batsmen and their bowlers bowled to the plan and supported by some extraordinary good fielding did not let the big Indian batting guns fire. Only batsman to strike it rich was veteran Rahul Dravid.

The hyped up Sachin Tendulkar was expected to hit his 100th 100 in his career on this tour. But that England did not allow him to realize that dream speaks volumes for their determination to keep the master in check and not let him run riot.

In the final Test and in the second innings the way Tendulkar was going it looked as though he was destined to make that elusive 100. But he was beaten by a delivery from Tim Bresnan when on 91 and ruled out LBW by umpire Rod Tucker much to the disappointment of the batsman and all his supporters.

All round effort

It was a fine all round effort by the Brits that allowed them to bask in the glory of being World Champions. Their pacemen led by James Anderson and supported by Chris Tremlett, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan bowled superbly. The only spinner Greame Swann now rated the best spinner in the world lived up to that reputation and his crowning glory was the six wickets in the second innings of the final Test.

With the England pacemen Anderson, Tremlett, Broad and Bresnan dominating, the consensus was that they were the best ever in this trade produced by England. But arguably wasn't Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Frank Tyson and Peter Loader better bowlers? As for the England batsmen, Alastair Cook-the vice captain, maintained his reputation of being a run machine. With his dogged batting he just ground the Indian bowlers and his heavy scoring helped his team run up big scores. Ian Bell too met with success.

Promoted as one drop after the injury to Jonathon Trott, Bell grabbed the opportunity with both hands scoring a century and a double ton, cementing that position and how Trott will fit into the England team will be interesting to watch. Bell looks the ideal in that position with his correct approach, technique and temperament.

Sir Viv Richards speaks

With England celebrating their hard won success, former West Indian master blaster and captain Sir Vivian Issac Richards spoilt the party by questioning the wisdom of England selecting four South African born players.

Speaking to the GUARDIAN this is what Richards had said; "You've always complained over the years about too many foreign players in county cricket, blah, blah, blah. I was around here at that time when the argument was fully on board.

But then you start picking folks from South Africa. It doesn't quite send the message home to me that you quite know what you're doing and what you think your future is about.

The guys have come over here, they are qualified, good luck to them, you have given them an opportunity and they have taken it. Maybe you have got to ask someone higher up in the establishment who understands how these things work. Sir Viv Richards was recently in London representing the Antiguan Tourist Board.

South Africans

The South Africans Richards was referring to Captain Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott, Eoin Morgan is Irish. Every Brit would have loved to see an Englishman receiving the World Champions mace and not a South African born England captain. Jade Dernbach who plays limited over cricket for England is also South African born.

England who gave the wonderful game of cricket to the world, heaped humiliation on world champions India by slapping a whitewash, winning all four Test matches. Never before has such humiliation being heaped on the Indians. One has nothing but sympathy for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Indians.

They arrived in England carrying the tag of World Champions and were expected to stuff the Brits and go back with the World Champion tag intact. But what finally happened to say the least was disgraceful.

As for us who have been closely following the fortunes of the Indians, the cause for their defeat was their inability to get out of the one-day mood and settle to playing the longer version of the game, what game cricket is all about.

In all four Test matches, it was obvious that they were struggling unable to get right their technique and temperament that is required to survive in the longer version of the game right. Not that they did not have the men suited for Test cricket.

But having played a surfeit of limited over cricket, they did not probably have the time to get accustomed to playing five-day cricket. Losing two of the four Tests by innings was inexplicable and would have shamed the entire cricket crazy nation.

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