Viv Richards extends a friendly hand to Team India 

West Indian legend Vivian Richards on Thursday offered to help India's cricketers to develop their mental toughness in the wake of their early and humiliating oust from the World Cup. It was shocking that India who were the 1983 champions and 2003 runners up were stunned by Bangladesh in their opening match before suffering a second defeat against Sri Lanka to be knocked out of the tournament. 

Richards described India's ouster from the tournament as "mind-boggling." He said, "I would not blame the team management for this debacle, but there has to be some reason why a team as supremely talented as India does not achieve more success."Richards believes a lack of self-belief despite immense potential was the reason for India's early exit. He has offered to help India to prepare for future challenges. Richards, regarded as the most destructive batsman in history, said that he would enjoy the challenge of motivating a group of players as talented and promising as the Indians.

Richards recalled the West Indies debacle in the 1983 World Cup final when they lost to India. However, they avenged the defeat during their subsequent India tour. He feels India can take a lesson from that and hoped India would bounce back on the tour of Bangladesh in May for two Tests and three one-dayers. As a final word of advice Richards added, "They (India) should regroup and convince everyone that what happened in Port-of-Spain was a blip, and nine times out of 10 there can be only one winner in an India-Bangladesh encounter."