While there is a lot of euphoria over India's Twenty20 win, there are also those who look to throw cold water on the achievement by quoting the luck factor. There aren't so many right now, but I am sure that with the passage of time, and assuming India don't always win every match they play from now on, I can see many in the fickle Indian public, including the "experts" on TV, joining the current minority.

India could have lost many times in the tournament, some people say, and it was just plain luck that allowed them to win those matches. Joginder just got lucky, they say; any decent batsman could cart him around the ground anytime he wanted. Dhoni just had beginner's luck, they say; wait till he runs into the Aussies and the Pakistanis in "serious" cricket.

On some counts, I doubt if anyone would deny that India had its share of luck in this tournament. In all the matches, there were times when the match seemed to be getting out of reach of the Indians, and yet they won. This would include the matches against England, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan, when a crucial run-out or a bowling change turned the game. Of course, who could forget the last ball of the tournament, when Misbah ul-Haq, who was hitting the ball with power and had the entire ground to choose from but yet decided to go for the absolutely foolhardy option of scooping it over fine leg that had been brought into the circle.

Absolutely lucky, but then plant a stump on the ground and try to throw it down from 15 metres away. Wouldn't you say some luck would be involved in hitting it? The Aussies and South Africans turn matches with their brilliant fielding all the time; a captain calls right and manages to put the opposition in on a green top, and by the time his own batsmen are up for a hit, the conditions are easier. Surely, an element of luck in that too, and, yet, can we remove it from the game as we know it today?

Luck will never make you succeed. It will only increase your chances of success. For a direct hit, the player has to make the throw in good time. Hitting the stumps is secondary. For getting six sixes in an over, the batsman has to try to hit the ball out of the ground six of six times. How many batsmen in world cricket would have tried to hit all six out of the ground given the same six deliveries that Chris Broad served to Yuvraj? Luck is secondary here too; the intent is primary.

Joginder Sharma bowled India to a victory in both the semi-finals and the finals. That, to me, was the most amazing part and convinced me that Dhoni had the Midas touch in this tournament. Frankly put, I think that while Joginder is a game-trier and would probably bust his butt trying every time, he was probably the easiest option for the batsmen to hit around, simply because he was getting his line and length so wrong in this tournament. He has a good record in domestic cricket, but from what I saw in the world cup, batsmen will be lining up to take him on in the slog overs. Yet, this man delivered two absolutely huge matches to India, while a more accomplished Harbhajan might or might not have succeeded. It may be true that he had a bit of luck, but that he bowled the right balls is definitely true.

The best part about India in the Twenty20 World Cup is that they kept giving it their best shots and they kept getting lucky. They didn't sit and cry about Yuvraj's absence in the quarter-final against South Africa; Rohit Sharma came in and grabbed the only chance he might have got in this tournament. Sehwag missed out at the last minute, and Yousuf Pathan again got the only match he might have ever got in this tournament. In the final equation, his 15 runs proved invaluable.

Dhoni's bowling changes seemed to have been programmed to get success - they were that effective. Rohit Sharma got lucky with his run-out of Justin Kemp when South Africa seemed to be running away with it. The same with Robin Uthappa and Imran Nazir in the finals.

The young men in this Indian squad will face many days in future when things will not go as well and everyone will not shout compliments about them as is happening now. There will be days when they curse their luck for their woes. Whatever else the Indian team takes away from their win in this tournament, I hope it will include the knowledge that in order to get lucky, they need to do what they did in this tournament - be brave enough to give everything a damn good shot - luck will decide on its own whether to jump in or not.

Yes, gentlemen! The Indian team got lucky in this tournament and they could have lost any of their matches against England, South Africa, Australia or Pakistan. But the truth remains that they didn't lose those matches. They won them all and they are the world champions, albeit in the Twenty20 format, which included the strongest teams that all the cricket-playing nations in the ICC could come up with. If anyone has a problem with that, he or she can go jump off the nearest high-rise building. If they are lucky, they might get bitten by a radio-active spider and be able to swing their way to safety.