Australia was exceptional at the eighth World Cup, which was staged for the first time in the African Continent. The even began on a wrong note, with the revelation that the match-winning leg-spinner, Shane Warne, had consumed a banned substance. It resulted in his withdrawal from the squad, but Ricky Ponting's men did not let this episode affect their morale on the eve of their opening match against Pakistan at the Wanderers. In fact, Australia's bits and pieces man, Andy Symonds, uncorked a brilliant hundred.

After defeating a powerful rival, Australia marched towards its second consecutive World Cup triumph (third in all), taking in its stride the fury of Black Caps' fast bowler, Shane Bond, and overcoming many other uncomfortable moments to maintain a clean slate and finally crush India in the final. Each member of the team chipped in with his bit, notable among them being Andy Bichel, who turned out to be the surprise packet against England, and Brett Lee, whose pace and bounce fetched him a hat-trick against Kenya. Ponting provided the icing on the cake with a superlative hundred in the final, only the second captain in World Cup history to do so.

In this edition, Indian Cricket 2004, India's former opener, K. Srikkanth, dwells upon the reasons for Australia's success. Former Mumbai and India player, Jatin Paranjpe, presents an analysis of Australia's Test match captain Steve Waugh, whose glorious career is approaching its end.

This volume also focusses on the three best batsmen in business. Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara have been around for more than a decade and Nirmal Shekar attempts to dissect their approach to batting and offers his insight into why they have been a delight to watch.

Mumbai's Ranji Trophy winning captain, Paras Mhambrey, has given a brief account on the new format of the National Championship while Raju Bharatan has authored the Special Portrait on former India opener Chetan Chauhan, whose guts batting and determined partnerships with Sunil Gavaskar are worth recording.

The five cricketers of the Year are Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, A.T. Rayudu, Avishkar Salvi and Ramnaresh Sarwan. The season kept the statisticians busy and Mohandas Menon, Sudhir Vaidya, Pervez Qaiser and Rajneesh Gupta have made substantial inputs on international and domestic tournaments.

Publishers.