There will be many reasons Indian fans will come up with after India’s exit about how it’s a good thing after all. They can now enjoy the other key matches like today’s Australia versus South Africa and the second round of matches that will feature Ireland and Bangladesh. An upset each would really spice things up.

After the first round of matches, Sri Lanka has risen up the favourites list and now sits alongside South Africa and Australia with New Zealand a distant fourth. England and West Indies should be the other two teams in the Super Eight but they really don’t have much chance on current form.

Today’s match (AUS v SA), though, promises to be a needle match since these two teams won’t play each other until the knock out stage of the semi-final or the big final. And there are more than just two points at stake. There’s confidence, momentum and the upper hand to be gained.

Sri Lanka’s win was impressive for more reasons than one. They had already qualified and although Bangladesh’s win over India upset their calculations briefly, they came back and won against India to ensure nothing went wrong for them. India, for their part, had a quick Caribbean visit and will perhaps now start preparing for their tour of England in June or so.

What will happen to Greg Chappell? Is this the end of the road for Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sourav Ganguly? Will we see them again in four years? Is there a successor for Dravid? Two bad losses in seven days have thrown the team into turmoil.

No such problems for some of the other teams, though. Although the tournament was designed to ensure that the big eight got through with some good practice games, it has seen two of the biggest teams in India and Pakistan exit. The television viewership (a large chunk of which is from the subcontinent) will certainly take a beating and this won’t be good news for sponsors or the tournament organisers.

But India’s performance has gone to prove that they were mentally under-prepared and the thumping win over the West Indies in the warm-up match only provided false hope. In the end, it is the West Indies that’s going through with a 100 per cent record and India is on their way home. There really is no point pinning too much hope on Bermuda beating Bangladesh and it’s best to accept that India is coming home.

If you really love cricket, it’s best if you told yourself that the cricket would still be good. Only India won’t be a part.