India are now the official chokers of world cricket. Since 1999, the team has won just three out of 25 tournament finals.

MS Dhoni led a young and vibrant team to do battle for the STAR Cricket Asia Cup in Pakistan. They reached there as the overwhelming favourites, ahead of defending champions Sri Lanka and a notoriously unpredictable Pakistan.

The other three teams, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and the UAE were merely making up the numbers. They were not even expected to pose a challenge.

True to faith and glory, India managed a berth in the final. India and Sri Lanka, the two most powerful teams in the subcontinent were going to slog it out for the ultimate cricketing prize in Asia.

Slog it out? Not quite. The Indian team went down in a whimper. Sri Lanka romped home by 100 runs to successfully defend the Asia Cup. And that after Dhoni's bowlers had restricted the islanders to a chaseable 273 dsepite a savage sanath Jayasuriya carnage.

That despite the fact that India had packed the line up with seven specialist batsmen to put it in the captain's words "play to our strength", whcih clearly is batting.

Further testimony to India's final barrier lies buried in Bangladesh. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh clashed for the Kitlpy Cup Tri-Series. There were no upsets along the way as both the big brothers of Asian cricket cruised to the finals. On the way, India trounced Pakistan by 140 runs in one of the league games.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, embroiled by its own political stigma, seethed further and its boss, Nasim Ashraf clobbered the team management for the "humiliating loss."

Former Pakistani players lambasted the team and captain Shoaib Malik for not being motivational enough.

India and Pakistan again met in the final. No one had given Pakistan a ghost of a chance, more so after the earlier mauling. However, India flopped in a final, again. The Indian team's win in the Commonwealth Bank Series Down Under in the dawn of 2008 had started to look like a fantasy achieved in some long forgotten dream land.

India beat Australia in the best of three finals in March and won rather emphatically. But over the last 10 years, India's record in finals has been rather abyssmal.

Dhoni told STAR Cricket that India were not doing badly in at least reaching the finals. But when you also look back at the fact that most of the tournaments where India made it through had teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh as other participating nations, you would have to concede that the team has done nothing out of the ordinary in making it to the title clash.

Out of the 25 finals India have featured in since 1999, they have won only three, lost 18, with four finals getting washed out. This cluster also includes the Best of Three finals in the CB Series.

India were trounced by 123 runs by Pakistan in the Pepsi Cup final in the April of 1999 and were again walloped by the same opponents in Sharjah by eight wickets inside two weeks.

The biggest disapointment would have been a particluar loss in Johannesburg in 2003. Saurav Ganguly's "dream team" went down by 125 runs to let Australia defend the World Cup.

Since 1999, India have not been able to beat Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in a single tournament final. Are we to believe that these teams are better than India? Not necessarily. Perhahps it all comes down to a matter of character.

India thumped Austrlia in the finals of the Commonwealth Bank Series. A certain gentleman named Sachin Tendulkar ruled the roost with his bat, scoring a ton and a blazing 91 in the two finals the team won.

A big match player has to fire in finals. It is high time some one started doing that. Tendulkar may or may not play on till the next World Cup. India need to find someone who will be more responsible than grinding through the innings to bring some kind of respectabilty to the total.

The hunt is on. Dhoni has decided to walk in with fresher legs in his quest for one day glory. No Ganguly, no Rahul Dravid. Maybe a little bit of Tendulkar. The Suresh Rainas and Rohit Sharmas need to step on the gas a lot more.

Indian cricket fanatics would not complain about the lack of efforts. However, success on the field would only be judged by the number of trophies that come into the coffer. And that is where the Indian team is lagging big time. It is time to change that equation now.