Strong leadership, on and off the field, at heart of India's success | Duncan Fletcher

I first met Gary Kirsten when he was a student at the University of Cape Town. Even then he was a quiet and unassuming, but confident individual. I had just become the University cricket coach and Kirsten was struggling to get a game as the No9 batsman. One day I suggested that he should try opening because, while he was not that sound technically, he had a very strong character. I have seen lots of talented players who I knew were never going to make it, but when you have a man who is as strong mentally as Kirsten is, you cannot put a limit on how far they can go.

Now he is the coach of India. He was always energetic and enthusiastic, which is why I thought he would make a good coach, even if the India job was a hell of a one to take on when he had so little experience.

We went on to work together at Western Province for a long time, along with Eric Simons, who is now the India bowling coach. Another member of that UCT team, Paddy Upton, is the conditioning coach. He has a degree in psychology, so he works on the mental side as much as the physical one. It gives me a lot of pride that three players who I worked with so much have gone on to have such success as coaches. They are the unsung heroes behind a squad full of superstars, especially Kirsten.

That is just how he wants it. It is in some people's nature to want to be in headlines, but Kirsten has always been shy of the media. That was part of why he is so well suited to the job. For a long time India lacked a hard edge. Before Kirsten they appointed Greg Chappell to try and give it to them. Chappell was a good coach in the wrong job. His Australian approach did not fit with the culture of the team or of the country. He was abrasive and always spoke his mind. So he rubbed people up the wrong way. Kirsten is a tough man, but he is also the kind who is quick to put an arm around your shoulder. He talks quietly to people and tries to motivate them in a positive way. That is why he has built up such good relationships with the Indian players. You hear them talking about him as though he were a friend more than a coach, which is very telling.

Take Sachin Tendulkar. Chappell almost seemed to want to provoke Tendulkar into playing better, but a player like that does not need challenging. Like all great sportsmen, he drives himself. I know that Kirsten gets on very well with Tendulkar. They talk cricket a lot. Tendulkar is very forthcoming with his ideas, but does not try to dominate discussions. He will make a suggestion, but will support Kirsten whether he goes with it or not. That is a real mark of the man. I like the fact that Tendulkar tried the captaincy and decided it was not for him, but still contributes so much to the team on and off the field. He does it without too much ego. When he gives advice to MS Dhoni he is not demonstrative. He does not wave his arms around just to show the crowd that he is still making decisions, but just walks up and has a quiet word in the captain's ear.

As in all things, you need a little luck to be a good coach and Kirsten is fortunate to have such good lieutenants in the team. The same goes for Dhoni. I have studied Dhoni closely over the years, and these days I am impressed with every single aspect of what he does. Technically, he is not a very good cricketer, but mentally he looks as though he knows how to work with the ability he has got. Just like Kirsten. When he arrived in the team he seemed to be a showman, always playing strange and spectacular shots. But now he is one of those players who can really adjust his style to the situation. He is prepared to grit it out and to give the glory to other batsmen while he just plays the ball around and tries to occupy the crease. If anything he could do with showing a little more of that old flair.

As a captain he has the great gift of being proactive rather than reactive in his decision-making. You see that in his field settings and bowling changes. When decisions go wrong a proactive captain is always going to be more exposed than a reactive one, but Dhoni does not fear that. Look at the stick he took when he gave Ashish Nehra the final over instead of Harbhajan Singh in their defeat against South Africa. Afterwards, Dhoni explained his thinking, which was sound, and shrugged the criticism off.

He is also a model of good body language on the field. Watch him when a catch is dropped. He does not mutter to himself or stare at the grass. He holds his head high and puts his hands on hips, almost as though he did not notice it happen. The message he is sending the players is "OK, let's move on and get on with it."

Kirsten, Dhoni and Tendulkar. They are an excellent trio of leaders. If India win, they will owe an awful lot to all three.

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Shane Warne denies interest in taking over as India's coach

Shane Warne has expressed his surprise after reports in India quoted him as saying he was interested in replacing Gary Kirsten as coach of the national side.

Kirsten stepped down from the role after leading India to their second World Cup title in Mumbai, while Warne is in India preparing for the Indian Premier League, where he is captain-coach of the Rajasthan Royals.

Warne earned plaudits for guiding the unfancied franchise to the inaugural IPL title three years ago and, while it remains his only coaching role, he has been touted as a potential India coach before.

The Mail Today newspaper quoted Warne as saying: "It is a very difficult job to be India coach, it is never easy. But with India doing so well, it is a lot easier to take over right now than it has been in the past.

"I'll enjoy working with the Indian cricket team for sure."

However, responding via Twitter, Warne said his quotes had been misinterpreted. Warne wrote: "Just got told on bus - apparently I put my hand up to coach India. Wow – first I have heard of it. Sorry to disappoint but never said that!!!"

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Cricket World Cup 2011: India's press reacts to victory

"Men who make history defy all the odds," the Hindustan Times said, labelling the win "a resounding announcement of India's official coronation as the world's best team" which will herald a cricketing "golden age" for India.

"Windia!" was the banner headline in the Indian Express, while the Mail Today ran "Cup of Joy" over a picture of champagne bursting over the players' heads as they held up the trophy.

Like many newspapers, the Mail singled out the role of skipper Dhoni, who hit the winning runs in style with an imperious six into the packed stands.

"Hail Mahendra Singh Dhoni," the newspaper said. "On a night when the heat inside the Wankhede Stadium could have left you breathless, the inspirational leader showed what it is to lead from the front."

There was special praise too for the "instrumental" efforts of India's coach, former South African Test player Gary Kirsten, who has been credited with reviving the team's fortunes after a turbulent era under Australian coach Greg Chappell.

Tributes for the little master

Most newspapers ran special articles to honour star batsman Sachin Tendulkar who, at 37, was almost certainly appearing in his last World Cup tournament.

Tendulkar, playing in front of his home crowd, failed with the bat, scoring just 18 runs, but still ended up shedding tears of joy once victory was assured.

"For very long, cricket has been synonymous with Tendulkar all over India," said the Indian Express.

"But home is where the heart lies, and no other ground in India, or the world, could have provided a more emotional platform for the batting maestro."

Friends in high places

Praise and congratulations poured in from all quarters, including Indian President Pratibha Patil.

"All of you truly deserve the thanks of a billion plus Indians today," she said in a message to the team, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thanked the players for having "made India proud."

Congress president Sonia Gandhi greeted the jubilant crowds in Delhi, saying the victory "will be etched in gold for generations to come."

Meanwhile, in Colombo

The tone was very different in Sri Lanka, where the state-run media blasted everything from the preparation of the national team to the squad selection.

The Sunday Observer particularly questioned the wisdom of playing a half-fit Muttiah Muralitharan, the ace spinner and world record wicket-taker, who was retiring after Saturday's game.

"Was it advisable playing a half-fit Muralitharan?" the paper said. "Winning the mega final is much more important than giving a farewell tribute to even a great cricketer of Muralitharan's magnitude."

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India's World Cup cricket victory: the measure of a nation

It is 3pm in a small British bar in the tourist state of Goa about 550km south of Bombay – where the country's cricketers are harrying Sri Lanka's batsmen in the early overs of the World Cup final.

It is 28 years since India last won this most cherished of titles in a nation so crazy about the game. There are fewer than nine hours to go until it does so again. But we don't know that yet.

Mohinder Amarnath, the man of the match in the 1983 World Cup, is certain, however, that the moment has arrived to repeat his team's success. Every Indian can realise their dreams through the 11 men on the field today, he says.

He need not have worried. Corrin, the eponymous owner of the Goan bar, is reaching for a brush, and dipping it into the pot of orange acrylic paint on the table in front of her. She holds the arm of the little Indian girl in front of her, draws the first rectangle of the national flag, hands the brush to Sonny, the barman, and watches him draw the white and green stripes. The girl, the daughter of the beautician who runs the shop upstairs, beams, delighted, and skips away to show off her affirmation of support for the home team.

In the street outside, a truck thunders by, horn blaring, Indian flags fluttering in from the cab. The picture is repeated across the country; millions are glued to their televisions or radios, donning their replica shirts, daubing themselves in the national colours. India is partying; each successful delivery from its bowlers greeted by a round of beating drums. The country that has made cricket its national game is certain that this year, finally, it will capture the ultimate prize, the World Cup.

India is certain that this is no more than it is due. It has already celebrated what many in the country regard as the real final, victory over its most reviled opponent, the notoriously unpredictable – unless you happen to be a friendly bookmaker – Pakistan team, which on Wednesday managed to throw away a magnificent bowling performance to lose ignominiously.

And India was desperate for this victory; the humiliation of the Commonwealth Games corruption scandal was still fresh; the country's recent diplomatic successes – not least towards a permanent seat on the UN Security Council – has been overshadowed by fresh concerns about its aspiration to be regarded as a first world nation.

This is a nation demanding international approval: buoyed by the news that projections now show it will overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2030, there is a sense that its time has come.

As Saturday dawned, prayers were said, puja [offerings to the gods] were made, anything to give the Indian team an edge. Across the country, people painted themselves in the blue of the national team strip or in the orange, white and green of the flag, and prepared to party.

Bars and hotels hiked prices and charged admission to the more rarefied environments. In many places, TV screens were set up and even when the big screen was not an option, the nation gathered anywhere that a television was on, peering over each other's shoulders to catch a glimpse of the match.

In Corrins', even Sonny was applauding as Sri Lanka upped the ante in their final overs, smashing the ball hither and thither. Then a nation of – according to the new census figures – 1.2 billion fell silent as top batsman Sehwag fell to the second ball of the Indian innings.

Yet important as the game was, some felt that there was a sense of anticlimax after the Pakistan game. "The excitement among people is lacking," Manoj Kumar, a hotel manager, told the Times of India.

Not so among the Sri Lankans, who had sidled into the final without the fireworks of the Indian progress. Captain Kumar Sangakkara pulled no punches when he explained what it meant to a country even more desperate for international approval after the end of three decades of bloody civil war: "It means everything. We have come through a very tough period. A lot of people have laid down lives for our country. In this new future, hopefully we can take home the World Cup, and that will be even more occasion for celebration."

Gautam Gambhir, the Indian batsman who stabilised the nation's innings after the loss of influential opener Sehwag, was no less compelling when he told a news channel that India had to win to honour the dead of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai: "For me it will be dedicated to the people who lost their lives in the 26/11 massacre."

For India, the desire to be taken seriously by other nations in sport is perhaps more important than diplomatic point-scoring. Like its neighbour China, it has been unable to translate a mass of bodies into international sporting success. In terms of international trade, it has come on in leaps and bounds, yet still it is unable to project that power into other fields.

Such desperation for success was reflected in the way many in the country fell back on superstition in their desire to ensure success. One fan, Ritangshu Bhattacharya, from Delhi, assured journalists that he would be attempting to tip the odds in India's favour by defying nature: "I won't pee in the entire match… I feel whenever I go to the loo, a wicket falls or India drops a catch."

Even his stoicism was outdone by one politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh, who stood from 10am to 10pm during the India-Pakistan match.

In Corrins', there is no doubt about who should have won: "You have to support the team, don't you?," she said. "We live here, we have to support the local team, however it goes."

It is 10.45pm, and MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, is hammering the ball to the boundary again. Six to win, two overs. There are fireworks going off everywhere, drowning out the commentary. India knows it has won. It is the Pakistan game all over again: victory from defeat, India defiant.

Six runs, and he smacks it over the boundary. The fireworks explode. In the cities, there is madness; in the villages, too, people are hugging and screaming. The firecrackers are exploding, the night a blur of colour. India wins.

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