Leave it to BCCI to set things right in Team India

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India will strike its own course. It will not be cowed down by the criticism over its handling of the tight scheduling that was thought to be the principal cause of the disastrous tour of England. Should it be such a bad thing if the board does not wish to be paralysed by analysis at a moment when everything seems dark and dank?

Given a strong hand on the rudder like that of new president N. Srinaivasan, it was likely that BCCI would prefer to go by its own counsel rather than listen to the cricket world chirping on about what caused the England debacle.
A study, even steeped in high empirical standards, may not mean much all that much in sport. But the least the board can recognise is there has been a major problem with team performance.
The criticism over the IPL is not as valid as people may be led to believe. The premier league has been India’s invention and it has brought about an amazing transformation in not only the general cricket economy but also in the lives of all the players fortunate enough to be a part of it.
There is no cricketer who has played in the IPL and not benefited from it. Not only in terms of money but also in the security offered by this newfound capacity to gain a fair return from the game. The reason why Team India rose to such heights can also be traced to the dollops of self assurance brought in by the mega-bucks of IPL. And we all know how much of an attitude shift Indian cricketers needed in order to make their skill sets count on the world stage, The 2007 T20 world championship victory changed so much as to make history.
Team India have run into a glitch or two in most recent times. One clear reason for this is the kind of scheduling that has to be endured in a World Cup year. The showpiece event is going to put the heat on the players since there is no way to avoid the crowding in the cricket calendar, regardless of whether the event is held in the northern or southern hemisphere. There are very few new faces in the BCCI lineup and the old hands will have to put their heads together to make the rebuilding process possible. Although one selector is not going to radically change anything in a team of five, the advent of Mohinder Amarnath promises much, He is a shrewd judge of cricketing merits with a very good technical eye.
Ages ago, ‘Jimmy’ held a press conference in Srikkanth’s room at the West End hotel in Bengaluru to denounce the selectors since they had just dropped him from the Test team for the New Zealand series. He called them a ‘bunch of jokers’ and I know Raj Singh Dungarpur did not take kindly to remarks in a similar vein that came on a riotous evening in the team hotel. Why, the great Chandra stopped talking to me because I took up Mohinder’s cause back in 1988-89.
A lot of water has flowed down the Cauvery since then and Jimmy has also served the IPL governing council in its fourth season. Ironically, he joins his mate Srikkanth on the selection panel in the hope that the England tour was an aberration rather than a signpost to the future.
The two World Cup heroes of ’83 will have to put their brains together to get Team India back on the rails. The national team needs urgent attention and everyone knows it.