World Cup disgrace: It is the stars, stupid!

Editor's note: This story filed by IANS makes interesting reading, especially after India lost to Bangladesh by five wickets in the 2007 World Cup. Everyone said that India will not win the World Cup, but none had predicted that Men in Blue, will lose to Bangladesh!
New Delhi
Their performance will be good, but probably not good enough to win the title, predict some astrologers about India's prospects in the World Cup.
"Though India will manage to save its face, prestige and esteem with individual sterling performances, stars do not favour India in the final, especially under Rahul Dravid's captaincy," said Agra's renowned astrologer Pramod Gautam.
After analyzing the 'kundli' (birth charts) of the Indian team announced on February 12, Gautam rules out India's chances of winning the cricket World Cup. Astrologer Richa Shukla of New Delhi agrees with Gautam. "India's prospects of winning the World Cup are very complex.
Though India is going to perform well at warm-up level, its fate will depend on reaching the Super Eight. If they perform well in that, they can reach the final also. But winning the cup is under clouds," Shukla said.
There are high chances of the team making it to the final, is what astrologer Pandit Suresh Kumar has forecast. Based on the 'prasna' method, which has nothing to do with individual horoscopes of the players or the coach, Kumar says that that although India's performance in the warm-up matches will be good, the overall showing may not be. "There is a 50 percent chance that India will reach the final.
Indiscipline, confrontation with the management, lack of confidence and politics may squeeze the spirit of the team," he said.
Astrologer Ajai Bhambi of New Delhi, however, said that things don't look so bad and if India can win the semi-finals, then there are good chances of winning the cup as well.
"It's a World Cup winning team. There is just one hurdle, the semi-finals - which if they can cross will mark victory for them," he said.
Talking about the player's performances, most astrologers said that Virender Sehwag would fail to give an excellent performance because of "loss of self belief". But Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan are bound to do well, because their stars are in the ascendancy and looking down favourably on them. Sachin Tendulkar, they said, will show some unpredictability but nevertheless sign off with grace and dignity.
And on the question about captaincy, there was mixed reaction, with most astrologers saying that Sourav Ganguly would have been a more able captain. "Rahul's stars come in the way of India's march to glory. Sourav, who has been having a favourable run thanks to his stars, would have been a better choice," Gautam said. Shukla said: "Rahul's current year number matches with this year's number, but his name does not suggest victory. For the captain, the second half of the year is going to be a better time".
Bhambi differs on this issue.
"Looking at Dravid's kundli, there are five planets in the 10th house, which signifies action. This means he will give an excellent performance and show good leadership skills. He will make some mistakes but overall he will be good."