India, Feb. 22 -- Say what you will, the first round of the ongoing T20 World Cup had been nothing short of extraordinary. It's not because how the big teams played, it's because how the Associate Nations played. The USA almost stunned defending champions India. Pakistan too survived by the skin of their teeth against the Netherlands. Nepal then got so close to upsetting England. There were so many occasions when these lesser teams well and truly punched above their weight.

Many of these Associate teams had players of Indian origin in their ranks, a fact that didn't escape even Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Busy as he is, it would be unfathomable that he would know of cricketing matters in such detail. In his Mann Ki Baat address to the ...