The Chappell-Dravid combination is a coming together of two erudite, studious and tough cricketers. It has coincided with delayed player contracts, a chaotic television-rights situation and farcical board elections. Maybe democracy as we know it is not so good after all!

While politically, India and Indian cricket may have dithered, it has set off a movement in small towns and hitherto untapped parts of cities that cannot now be shut off. Young boys are discovering that their initiative and ambition can now be noticed thanks to the mushrooming of the media and their desperate need to have a different story. And with the selectors going along with the Chappell-Dravid combination, the arrival of the likes of RP Singh, MS Dhoni and the continued presence of Harbhajan Singh and Mohammad Kaif will act as an incentive to many more such talents. As India searches into its rural heartland for economic growth so too does sport for the cities grow over-populated, and space and time, the two necessities for sport, get strangled.

There is yet another crucial link between commerce and sport. In industry performance is rewarded, initiative is worth its weight in gold and laxity is accompanied by a nudge towards the exit gate. These parameters, first under Wright and then, rather forcefully, under Chappell are finding acceptance with a new generation that sees this climate all around it. The most important people are not the erstwhile government employees who could stroll to work and never get sacked. The big achievers in today’s generation are hardworking call-centre executives, insurance and telecom salesmen, even retail executives; people who work hard to keep their jobs and have no qualms displaying their success.

It is this climate that Chappell and Dravid are appealing to; it is from such geographical areas that their best recruits are going to come from. All they need is polish and direction to go with their confidence and enthusiasm. The BCCI could help with some forward looking thought but truth be told, they could actually help even if they did nothing but did not come in the way of progress.

Sambit Bal will post next on Friday, November 17, afternoon India time.

Harsha has raised some very good points, and optimism regarding the current culture of performance from the team and that regarding the emergence of players from the hinterland is valid. However, one major concern, as pointed out, is the organization of the BCCI. Its structure discourages accountability and transparency. Its members have to play power games to be in a position where they can effect any changes. And, as it so often happens, power ends up becoming the sole objective. Without the BCCI cleaning up its act, the game will not reach the level it can.

What can the media and the commentators (such as this panel) do to influence the course of events? Public opinion really doesn't matter to the BCCI members, nor are their interests always aligned with the interests of the public. Besides, the public cannot influence the course of events at the BCCI (since it is a private club). Of all the stakeholders in Indian cricket (barring the BCCI members) - the public, the sponsors, the television companies, the players (domestic and national)- only the players can have a major say in how things are run. Without them, there is no team, no sponsors, no television money - nothing. What the media and the commentators can do, is to encourage the players to form a Player's Association, which could act as a counterweight to the BCCI, and help force the changes that everyone wishes to see, or at least see to it that the BCCI does not interfere.

Or, India may get its own Kerry Packer - then the BCCI will have to clean up its act.

I've elaborated on this on my blog at http://wicketmaiden.blogspot.com/2005/11/state-of-indian-cricket.html

Aniruddh Gupta

Very nice piece. One slight quibble: the analogy is slightly imperfect. In the long run, Indian cricket needs a well-functioning BCCI to prosper. The economy, on the other hand, needs the government to stay out of the way. In fact, to get our of the way much more than it has. The economy will thrive by itself, but Indian cricket needs governance.

I completely agree with Harsha about the movement being set off in smaller towns. A majority of the current team come from small towns and even the cricketers who are excelling in the domestic competetions aren't from the big cities. Also, large crowds turn up for domestic games in small cities like Indore and Vizag. It's high time the BCCI realises the potential of the small town.

I have a slight feeling that the debate has started a bit early..May be a series early..rather the end of SA series would have been the time for perfect assessment of Indian Cricket.

anyway Harsha as usual at his best..I never miss harsha's article. Hope he writes more frequently.

Harsha's comments are truly in line with the management principles that all students are taught in the various B-schools.A lot of entreupreners learn this lesson through hard work. Ultimately it is the putting in place of a system that will help not only help cricket but also any profession to march ahead succesfully.The aim to better oneself constantly will help us fine tune these existing systems thereby helping one achieve success.
This has been proved beyond doubt by the Australian cricket structure and all the economic powerhouses of the world.
We as Indians will now have to wholeheartedly leave behind the individual-centric progress and embrace a system-centric progress.The sacking of Sourav Ganguly,I think,has shown us that.He himself should gracefully accept it.
For the betterment of our nation will the political class and bureaucrasy accept this philosophy?

If the BCCI was run with the same level of professionalism as that shown by this new band of cricketers there would be an even bigger boost to the game. One possible way that could be done is by making the organization into a public company owned by those who have the largest stake in the game - spectators and players - and not just the administrators. It would also help if the administrators had impeccable credentials like a John Major at the Surrey Cricket club. We cannot let politics pervade and smother this game especially now there seems to be a blooming of a thousand flowers in the moufussil towns

I am proud of our cricket team, proud of our nation but embarassed by the BCCI. They want to run their organisation like a business, yet they defy the core principle in marketing- the customer is KING. It is time for the people running the BCCI to wake up from their slumber. I am quite confident that it is the only sports organisation in the world that does not have its own website. Shocking,but true. The ideal solution would be for an international sports management company like IMG to handle the affairs of the BCCI and sort out the mess with regards to television rights,player contracts and adminstration. Just as India deserve a good cricket team, the people of India deserve a cricket body which is responsible to them.
www.foreversport.blogspot.com

Just because we have won a few games doesn't change the entire scenario. We still have two camps who will do anything to get the other out in the BCCI. We still don't know how to let go of our senior players. A distributed system with the correct number of check points for failure detection and responsibility will mean more performance and we still have quite some distance to go. That will mean more accountability with in the BCCI. I'm still an optimist in that case.

I also feel that this is a pre-mature debate. Just one series win doesn't make a revolutionary team. The media must get out of this habit of jumping to conclusions all too soon.

I am a great fan of harsha and so nothing wrong with the article but as a whole we Indians tend to overreact a lot.

throughly enjoyed harsha's article.Its a nice analogy but there are a few differences I would like to point
1 .the current economic boom is a result of the foresight in developing institutes like the IIT's and the IIM's-BCCI ( and other sporting bodies) need have similar autonomous bodies which are totally unaffected by the political bickerings
2.India democracy despite its multiple flaws ensures stablity- BCCI is run by dictators like dalmiya.

Mr Bhogle's draws an interesting parallel in his piece. However, a comment in passing caught my eye. What does Mr Bhogle mean by "The Chappell-Dravid combination is a coming together of two erudite, studious and tough cricketers"? Is this combination's political equivalent is Rao-Manmohan Singh? Is this the first time in Indian cricket that two legendary gentlemen joined hands? Given his knowledge of the game, I'm sure Mr Bhogle will answer in the negative to the third question. Mr Chappell's contribution is yet to be assessed. The same argument holds true for Mr Dravid.

There is no denying that young blood from the hinterland is giving fresh impetus to Indian cricket. But, the emergence of smaller centres also raises questions about the so called power centres of Indian cricket. Shouldn't the regional boards, especially Mumbai be looking real hard at what ails their cricket or realise that they may not be producing caliber cricketers as they used to? It would only serve Indian cricket if these centres could throw up their own Dhonis and Kaifs.

As others have pointed out,'tis a slightly flawed analogy. Government intervention is irrefutably necessary for the long-term growth of a nation. Indeed, Indian Cricket needs the BCCI if they are to evolve into a modern team that is to be among the top cricketing nations.

It is simply not good enough, as Harsha suggests, for the BCCI to be not-helping-but-at-least-not-hurting.
The BCCI are backward and hindering the development of the game in India due to the short-sighted, self-preserving power hungry corrupts in control of Cricket in India.

Australia and England have shown that professional boards who act in the best interests of the game will enable the development of cricket in that country. Why is it so difficult to expect the same from India?

The point is that India will continue to flatter to decieve if the status quo remains - the talent is there for sure, but the odd victory, albeit magnified and inflated in consequence by the media and the populace, will not change the fact that India is doing injustice to its potential.

Changes are being and have been made in the economic arena, and India looks set to emerge as a superpower on that front. Will anybody be able to make these changes in the Cricket Administration? The players, fans and nation certainly deserve better.

Ajay Ahluwalia
Singapore

Harhsa mentions the small town movement. Of course UP is the most populous state in India but was fairly backward till recently. The emergence of so many cricketers from UP, like RP Singh, Kaif, Raina and Piyush Chalwa, is probably an indicator of the economical changes taking place there.

Surely, one impact of the economical growth would be that children from the lower middle class families are better fed. Also they have better financial backing and ofcourse a desire to better themselves in so many ways.

I feel that the easiest thing for critics to do in India is to blame the BCCI for everything that is wrong with Indian cricket. We frequently give the example of other countries like Australia and England that their professionalism. Why not look at the other side? The BCCI is doing a job that no other board in the country can imagine because India is like no other country on the cricketing map. Since we are talking political analogies, let us for a minute stop and think how heterogenous and fractured a country India is and how difficult it is for any one body, be it the government or the BCCI to control the myriad cultures, languages, and people and bring them under one umbrella. Can the same be said of any other country? Given the constraints, I feel that the BCCI is doing a rather good job. It has managed to give us teams that have captured the imagination of the people and while each and every decision will be contested, that is inevitable in a passionate country like India. We should wake up to the fact that the BCCI cannot afford to have public opinion as the arbiter of its actions. Public opinion, like in politics, is fickle and uninformed. And as Arjuna Ranatunga wrote recently, we treat our heroes badly. A few years ago, the same Dalmiya was being feted all aroung the subcontinent for getting cricket out of the clutches of the white nations; now he is suddenly a dictator and villain! I think the media, as represented by the likes of Sambit Bal, Harsha Bhogle, Amit Varma, and Prem Panicker need to get some perspective instead of just going along with the current public opinion of the day to make their columns popular.

as always, harsha bhogle was a a pleasure to read. the simplicity with which he conjures up analogies and arguments make him one of Indian cricket's most insightful writers. And the comparison with the economy is actually a true one. In fact, one point is even more pertinent. The indian youth today is far more confident of its abilities and its enterpreneurship skills. Some how competitiveness has breeded a lack of fear of defeat and pessimism has taken a step back. the same reflects in the cockiness of the new breed of cricketers - the yuvrajs, harbhajans, sehwags and gambhirs who have learnt never to take a step back. I was watching highlights of the 1979 oval test a few days and the england captain in that game Mike Brearly said that the Indians were such nice fellas that many of his players found it difficult to be aggresive with them. I think the era of being nice and genteel with the world is over. everyone is out there to win and so are we. in a globally competitive scenario only those with a streak of competativeness and strong work ehtic will survive. Indian cricket can afford to be hungry and lose a few freinds, but it must desire to win. And while at it can we please reform the BCCI - watching cricket on DD is the worst that the Board could have subjected all us fans to.

The introspection into Indian cricket is a good start. Harsha in his forthright way has started a healthy discussion. The Indian Government has taken so much time to be more transparent and proactive. In a democracy suffering from a legacy takes its own time to come out of its shackles. Harsha’s analogy fits perfectly here. Indian cricket is also in transformation stage. We are moving into a different gear thanks to explosion of media and information. All said and done, it is Dalmiya who has taken decisions at the right time to prop up the game in India to this level. It is why media today is also fighting it out in the Courts to get their share of glory. Active participation of domestic clubs and associations throughout India has begun. India being a huge and populous country, it takes time. You cannot create a system overnight. The balancing act of directing from the top and practicing democracy at BCCI has begun. The surge in the media, voices of cricket lovers and the performance of Indian team will undoubtedly ensure a smooth transition. Let us be positive

I do not remember watching a program on tv highlighting the emergence of a young cricketer at a time when he had promise but not the oppurtunity.
The media chases them after they shoot into the limelight after performing at a recognizable level.
Thus, Harsha attributing the emergence of youngsters to the media seems to be an exaggeration, though I agree that the media has made the world a smaller place.
While on the topic, the media has also done "nothing" to highlight the "real" reasons why heaviweights like Sharad Pawar and Arun Jaitley want the big positions in BCCI.
How does the BCCI funtion financially, what political equations make a selector and is there a corruption angle to the functioning of the board.
Why are we still away from the truth in a Kale/More episode?

But, the media has done a good job in preventing Indian cricket being like Indian hockey and preventing the emergence of a KPS Gill of Indian cricket.

Though the "state of Indian cricket" looks good the way it is at this point if time, we must guard against complacency and also guard aginst administrators making hay and sliding the team to another low.

Harsha's article is interesting.The opening up of the economy has resulted in smaller cities and towns becoming vibrant and has resulted in many young middle class boys taking up cricket in a big way.Lots of oppurtunities have opened up for them to perform well in sports.This augurs well for the future.However BCCI has to put its own house in order. It has to function like a professional corporate entity by managing the day to day and financial affairs effectively and appointing professionals as selectors who selects the best team based on merit and not regional groupism and politics.This is the least we cricket crazy people deserve.

Interesting choice of words. While Dravid and Chappell are, presumably, serious in their own respect, I dont know if I should accuse them of being *erudite*, and erudite in cricketing matters, by any measure; it's not as if they've written a tome or something on the finer aspects of the game.

Or is that a subtle dig at Mr Chappell's email to the BCCI president? We can only wonder! :-)

Its time for the cricket lovers to mount the pressure on BCCI as just the scribes/media cannot alone do it to bring the real professionalism. BCCI has to be dismantled immediately now and a thorough professional body has to put in place either through the likes of Sunil, srikanth, pataudi, bedi, kapil and Ravi or by good any other cricket loving professional bodies.
These people should start an organization to challenge the BCCI and bring out a revolution based on transparency , ethic and professionalism. Its the need of time which could be the awakening call for all other sport bodies in India to blossom. It will also relieve the sport bodies from the clutches of short sighted plotician and bureacrates.

I agree with Mr. Bhogle that the current BCCI is a private club. Mr. Bhogle has made a clear-cut case for a competent Indian Cricket Board and I hope a groundswell develops, making it impossible for BCCI to continue its feudal ways. The BCCI must function like any other corporation and should be answerable on all aspects of corporate governance.
The Government of India already has taken the right step of making statutory; feeds to State Terrestrial TV, so that less privileged Indians, particularly in the rural areas, have access to Cricket. Like Australia and maybe England, India should declare cricket a national treasure and apply controls on the BCCI. If BCCI cannot morph on its own, into a more professional corporate entity, then the Indian government should step in (like the Sri Lankan Government) and appoint an administrator until BCCI can get its act together. I cannot see any eminent Indian jurist or corporate leader, doing a lessor job than the current lot!
Player power also must be kept on check, just see all the misery the West Indian fans have to go through with this player-board-sponsor row. A strong Players Association does not guarantee it will have the best interests of the Indian cricket-viewing public as their core value.

Harsha's article is appropriate enough. But I would like to point to something else. First of all let me admit that I am a Ganguly fan but at the same time I also agree that he does not deserve a place in the current Indian team. My concern is not why he is not in the Indian team but rather the narrow mindedness and sometimes regional mindset of some journalists. I would not like to put Harsha in that category yet. But while reading this article I got a feeling that harsha "does not like" Ganguly! Now, it is perfectly fine for ordinary people like me to come out and say whose fan I am. But I expect more mature dealings from journalists. I expect Harsha to point to the good, bad and ugly of Indian cricket. But somewhere even in his articles I seem to smell "favoritism" or rather "opinionated" journalism. Or is it "regionalism"? Take this line for instance from his article: "And with the selectors going along with the Chappell-Dravid combination, the arrival of the likes of RP Singh, MS Dhoni and the continued presence of Harbhajan Singh and Mohammad Kaif will act as an incentive to many more such talents". No harm in praising Dravid because he deserves all of that. But the fact remains that only apart from RP Singh, the rest were all identified by the Ganguly-Wright team. Praise Dravid as much as you want but I as a reader do not want to get the impression that you never liked Ganguly. Come on Harsha... done be like the rest. Live up to your standards!

Whenever I hear or read Harsha Bhogle his name reminds me of the game Boggle. ** teehee - giggles like a school-girl **

Intersting parallel between economy and cricket... But I still think the goverment actuly had a cpl of forward thinkers who knew the route to economic growth, whereas BCCI has allways been a bunch of jokers. The very concept behind which they operate "service on their own spare time" is going to dictate a true lack of proffesionalism!! I am not sure I can see a short time or a long time solution to this. Its going to be the same allways, try an experiment .. let it continue till it gets ugly, try some other experiment for a short time , repeat the cycle till you get lucky as with Wright or (hopefully) with Chappell.... For once in my life , I would def. not ming eating humble pie if that turns out to be wrong!!

Harsha,
Why dont you also write/blog about issues such as the hypocrisy shown by the ECB re the venues for their tour?
I heard Graeme Smith complaining about the facilities in Hyderabad. I am sure SA and English writers will devote miles of newsprint for pointing out these shortcomings.
Yet, I dont see so much as a whimper from the Indian media. I have read a Prem Panicker article (http://www.cricket.org.pk/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1996-97/IND_IN_RSA/ARTICLES/VENGSARKAR_RILES_IND_30DEC1996.html) regarding this but other than this, what?
This is not a criticism of either you or the rest of INdian journos. But sometimes, an eye for an eye is extremely necessary.

It has always been a revelation to read or hear Harsha. One of the pillars which makes a match exiting is the commentary. I wonder what steps BCCI could take to make sure that we have expert commentrators like Shastri, Gavaskar, Bhogle, Boycott etc., appearing more often, in the present era when the Indian Cricket is getting a quantum facelift. Any comments for a solution?

I agree with Harsha that a healthy performance in a match comes only if there is good competition. I cannot, but, be surprised that, even with the kind of sorry state of affairs in which the BCCI was, it still managed to take some bold, solid and positive steps, instigated by the Chappel line-of-thought. In this respect, i do not agree with Harsha that "the best BCCI can do is to not come in the way of progress". One could have said the same about political atmosphere in India, since he has drawn a parallel? It has to emphasised that in a vast country like India, decisions cannot be take so easily. Similarly, BCCI is going through a torrid phase, the ending of which no one knows. But, the BCCI should atleast make sure that such affairs do not tear the fabric of the game. I strongly believe that the Ganguli-Dalmiya-Wright phase has done more wonders to Indian cricket, than damage, if much. In this regard, I congratulate BCCI for making Indian cricket a real brand in the world.

As a physicist, i should make a point here that evolution took billions of years. Change doesen't come in a single day. Ganguli-Dalmiya phase in Indian Cricket was milestone and the Chappel-Dravid era is definetely taking in the right direction.

I have great respect for Ganguli with the way he has gone with his job and for sprouting the seeds of the idea that youngsters have to be feeded in to the team from time to time. But, i also believe that he would have earned far more respect from the people of india, if he would have stepped down on his own, in the best interests of Indian cricket, for reasons we all know.

On the future of indian cricket: India always had good stroke players who can demolish any attack, good spinners from time to time and the fielding is also improving with the advent of more youngsters and the fitness regimes put in place by Chappel and co. I think if Indian are to make it to helm in the Carribean 2007, they will need some bowlers who can bowl "Yorkers and Bouncers at will". Indian cricket needs good (fast) bowlers. How often do you see a sight of stumps uprooted by yorker from Indian bowlers? May be BCCI can give an adv. in Newspapers!

I completely agree with everything that Harsha has written in this piece. Especially the fact that not only are a majority of current Indian cricketers from small towns but this trend is likely to continue in the future as well. BCCI must realize the potential of smaller towns.

Hi Harsha,

Nice article drawing parallels between the Economy and Indian Cricket. And it was refreshing to see an article about Indian cricket and not taking a dig at Ganguly. I still feel Harsha is not that kind of guy and had been as neutral as possible while writing or commenting. Mr. S.V.Muralidhar who is a Ganguly fan (like me) and had commented earlier on this article felt otherwise.

My comments were not about the article but about the writers/journos covering cricket in various media.

I am an ardent cricket fan and follow most of the articles about cricket (India particularly). It was staggering to see everyday morning in newspapers/web articles, one or the other writers taking a dig at Sourav Ganguly in one way or the other.

Ex-cricketers turned writers feel that they have the liberty to say anything and take individual stands. I get bored reading articles from Pataudi, Bedi and others for last so many years. I thought seasoned writers like Rajan Bala and R.Mohan would be better. But recently they are also going in the same trend. We as cricket lovers need something better. I still continue reading them because of my love towards cricket. (Harsha, please dont go to that level. please...)

Let us have a frank admission, how many of us prior to 2000 have felt that India can win tests against in Australia prior to starting of a series. I am a small child by 1981, so dont know much prior to that 1981 series.

Let us all hope for a better cricket writing world.

Regards,
Badarinath

Harsha's article was spot on. The contribution of rural India to the national team is indeed an event to take note of. Usually players from these regions exhibit greater physical fitness, a fierce team spirit and an extra-ordinary will to win. These qualities are best exemplified by Mohd. Kaif who has impressed one and all with his superlative fielding and fighting qualities. He is a perfect role model for all aspiring kids of the Indian heartland.

And the children of metros are increasngly getting distracted by so many other things these days. And as Harsha rightly points out, space and time has become a luxury for the city kids.

I trust Dravid dedication but for me to believe that India and Dravid have a team, the players will have to perform and work hard consistently over a period of time beside as they are now saying what Dravid has been saying and doing since his début - team is above individual and I will do what team needs me to do.

I will never trust BCCI . Dravid will succeed despite BCCI not because of it, but BCCI can do one easy thing for good Ranji players. don’t give Ganguly any grade of contract but I know even that is beyond them as Ganguly is poor then Ranji playing players and juniors.

Selectors hopefully will have some good times as they are really helpless in front of BCCI dictate so I don’t trust them .

Thank you Dravid for being yourself. don’t ever change. you give us hope.

The parallel between Indian cricket and the Indian economy is interesting, though the intersections of the two must be noted. Sports success is closely related to economic development, and Indian cricket's potential ascendancy is intrinsicly linked to its economic performance. The Indian economy has benefitted where deregulation and privatisation have prevailed, and investments in cricket infrastructure must follow a similiar paradigm. Moreover, as economic progress leads to higher human capital development throughout the country (as can be seen by higher life expectancies etc.) more cricketing stars can be expected to break through from India's rural areas.

Harsha has been one neutral and diplomatic writer. Also he is a articulate speaker.

The sacking of ganguly was a bold and important step. Prior to that Cricket was like our politics, where people are sitting on past merits, with more talk and less actions.

It indicates a positive step and hopefully soon we will see a similar indication in the economy as well

Harsha good job on your article. Lot of people had expressed many a thoughts on ur article. Your articles get good attention and I respect your thoughts. But i should agree that i observed a slight inclination or should i say the lack of it for our former captain. When people were being 'rested' to try other players, why not ganguly or laxman???

Good job Harsha. It was nice article especially this sentence "But it only required a couple of visionary budget proposals and the corresponding unshackling of the economy to unleash Indian entrepreneurship. Soon governments became irrelevant.".

I read the above posts and I can still smell sympathy for Ganguly. Also, somehow people wants to relate this article with ganguly. What Ganguly did was great but we should not forget other side of the coin (ODI series wins). And though we are thankful to Ganguly, he was not doing any favor to any of us.

India is a developing country and we people cannot sit thinking about our past. If Ganguly-Wright had wouldnt done it then someone else would have done it. And Kaif, Dhoni and others were talented to make their mark in team as same way Ganguly did years ago. So Azhar or selection committee cannot be given life time of membership for bringing in Ganguly.

Time keeps moving so do we.

I told you enabling comments was a great idea. There's nothing more that I can add that hasn't already been said or will be said. More power to the net. And let's hope not everything in Indian cricket happens despite everything that happens in Indian cricket. Just when you think things are going smoothly and under control, they aren't. Fortunately, the movement, the thrust, from rural India will make the charge inexorable. As always, more power to more positive thinkers, like Harsha.

Great piece Harsha.

The Indian economic boom surely strikes a close link with the boom in the attitude and calibre of Team India. Dravid-Chappell & co. are truly shining bright.

But I must say on behalf of those who still share a sympathetic attitude towards our 'Bengal Tiger'. With the kind of cricketing passion we share it doesnt matter if Team India was a Dravid-Chappell co. or Ganguly-Chappell co. I am sure none of us enjoyed Ganguly's bad run form and the public spat with the coach. From an 'Off-side God' he soon turned into a liability for Indian cricket. It was extremely bold and pragmatic for selectors to sack Ganguly and it paid off superbly.

Five years back, with the ghost of match-fixing not yet laid to rest, India traveled to Nairobi, for the ICC Knockout tournament, with a young side, under a relatively new captain and coach, that weren't expected to ruffle too many feathers. It took them just four games to stir the nation and, despite losing in a close final, returned to a hero's welcome. There was spunk, intensity and large chunks of promise from the youngsters. There was a captain in the form of his life.

History, chooses the best times, to repeat itself.

Its great to see some men have their eyes open still.

The best sporting structure I can see in the world is that in football.

For instance take the FA (Football Association of England). Now they are a democratic body but their powers lie only in the administrative side of the game. They can only define the basic rules of the league.

They have created a league system where independent clubs or 'companies' participate. The players, stadium, merchandise etc are all managed by the clubs.

If the FA take too drastic an action the clubs are big enough to desert the FA and form another league. Similarly, if a club breaks any rule the FA has the power to penalise them in the league.

If that system was implemented in India we would have a lot of quality clubs taking part. The competition would be so fierce that clubs will be under pressure to find new talent, give higher wages, and hire better staff.

Each club will be accountable as they are all in the league to make a profit.

You can say that ESPNSTAR tried this system with PHL and failed. Why PHL failed is because the teams were not individual but rather manufactured. What is needed is for the governing body to just set the rules and a league in place. Clubs should form of their own accord. Its only if you allow individuals to enter the system can it succeed.

While agreeing with a lot said, I am bit disappointed that the the many positive things done by the Indian Board are ignored - Cricket acadamies, scholarships, A tours - and a lot of the fresh faces are products of these- to name a few. Ranji structure is better, pitches are better... there are many things. If you really want to see an AWFUL board you need to look at Pakistan, ours I think is just an ordinary one.

Good comparison of rise of the Indian economy and that of cricketers from outlying areas. The fact remains that the BCCI remains entrenched in age old times. The office bearers like Dalmiya are continuing to fight to remain in office not for the good of Indian cricket but for their own financial gains. Nobody is that 'selfless' to hold on to their 'power' position if not for personal gain. And they can do so because they are not accountable to anyone and as in the past if Team India loses on the playing field they can always blame it on the players and they select a new team ad infinitum while 'laughing' all the way to the bank. Dalmiya has filled the 'coffers' of not just the BCCI but also of the ICC for which he deserves all kudos but I think for the good of Indian cricket he should now walk away. The late Vijay Merchant often used to say when a player 'retires' they should ask him 'why' and not wait till they ask 'why not'. Dalmiya has reached his sell by date and he should now retire and hand over the reins to professional people to take it further forward on 'modern' lines.

I wonder why is it a crime to even sympathize with Ganguly! All we have against him are allegations by one single man, who himself singelhandedly silenced every bit of criticism by throwing players out of the team (Zaheer, Laxman) or using board politics to gag the players (Harbhajan, Sehwag, Yuvraj). Whereas Ganguly's ommission is probably justifiable, what more is expected of Zaheer to stage a comeback is beyond my comprehension!

Of course, India is playing well for now. But that does not make the wrongs right. That does not make Greg Chappell's authoritarian ways commendable. With all this talks about building a new team, the only new player who has been done justice to his inclusion in the team so far is RP Singh, and virtually the same team played against Sri Lanka every match except for cosmetic changes. That does not seem like buliding a reserve bench to me, unless of course the reserve bench reads Ganguly, Laxman, Zaheer, Nehra, Kumble...

I suspect very much how long this forced silence will remain if India lose a few matches. It is a dictatorian regime, and every regime like that will fall, sooner or later.

Harsha is right. He has reflected the mind of an ardent Indian cricket fan who desires the best of his team everytime they play for the country. No doubt Ganguly is a class act. But he has been perenially out of form-not for just a season or two. Its only after the bold decision to sack Ganguly, we see the maturity of young talents rising up to the occassion. In cricket,its the results that count,not who you are.No individual person is bigger than the team. There is no hint of "regionalism" in Harsha's article,but in the comments that favor Ganguly. We all have relished Ganguly play through the off-side. Now its time for Ganguly to call it quits. For the kind of form he exhibits, he is not going to survive the run for 2007 world cup. So there can be no better training ground for the youngsters than in the home series against SL and SA. The selectors have made a good decision thinking of a long-term solution,which is welcome.

Another point which i would like to stress is Kaif is extremely over-rated. If someone like Ganguly has to sit out recovering from a tennis elbow,Kaif doesn't deserve a direct entry into the side. Kaif's slow scoring rate and his recent fielding lapses dont make him a permanent member of the side. Venugopal rao is as good a fielder as he is and a better batsman. So kaif can be a replacement for Venu.Kaif didnt do well in the Challenger series in Mohali and venu recorded a 100 and a 99.

When I saw the title of the article, I thought Harsha may be talking about the link between the growth of Indian economy and the fortunes of BCCI team. You know, how the support of millions of dollars from the sponsors propelled this team to finals of tournaments like World Cup, Champions Trophy etc. But I guess, I shouldn't have expected such candour from a website which is dependent on cricket for its survival.

After Harsha’s masterpiece parallelism between Indian economy and cricket, there is not much left to say. But, I would like to share some views on what makes a “successful organization” (like the Australian Cricket Board, ACB) really work.

The world is full of great organizations. Some like the Catholic Church have lasted almost two millennia. And some, such as Microsoft and Infosys are merely about two decades old. All have had their ups and downs, but all have also shown a remarkable ability to endure and thrive, to innovate and to constantly reinvent themselves.

Scholars who have studied corporate organizations such as these have come to the conclusion that all great organizations share certain common characteristics; like, Careful selection of the Board, the CEO and all key members of the organization, based on "traits" seen as crucial to the achievement of the purpose; accompanied by an often stubborn refusal to lose faith in those so selected, even when things are "not going well"

Lo and behold, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) follows a similar mission statement. It reads: "To defend and promote the values of cricket, ensure that Australian teams excel on the field, and be a formidable and successful competitor in the sport and entertainment industries.”

This from a nation with a population of 19 million, 6% the population of the US and not much more than the population of Mumbai. Thus, the reason why the Australian sportsman seeks victory could well be "winning for Australia" rather than money or fame.

With Competitiveness, Teaming, Lack of Personal Ego and Constant Innovation, ACB has proved all merits to run a “numero uno” organization.

Any organization that aims to build durable success has no choice but to "ape" Australian Cricket or, indeed, any of the other truly great organizations. And if the Board of Control for Cricket in India were to learn from this, we would count it a bonus.

"I do not remember watching a program on tv highlighting the emergence of a young cricketer at a time when he had promise but not the oppurtunity.
The media chases them after they shoot into the limelight after performing at a recognizable level. "

I would like to contest that statement. I perfectly remember the media frenzy surrounding Sachin Tendulkar's selection for the 1989(?) tour to Pakistan.

Tom Alter used to host a sports program on Doordarshan where he profiled him just before he had been left out of a tour to West Indies.

There was considerable discussion in the print media about Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly that preceded their selection into the national side.

Well writen peice and an analogy well made. The glare of media being responsible for small towners making it into the indian team is also correct. But one of the ills affecting indian cricket is the same media. Most of the coverage of cricket in media right from the telecast of matches to discussions on news channel is downright farcical. It displays a shameful greed to jump on a bandwagon. Unless the media becomes more responsible in its reporting and more sincere in its telecast of matches i am afraid they are killing a golden goose.

Harsha's parallel is impeccable, pity we don't get more articles from him.
just couple of things tho...first, its slightly premature to herald this team as the beginning of a new era just basis success against one team.
second, many of the changes like identifying young talent, performance giving way to regionalism in selection etc had already started in the ganguly-wright era.
sure, the new combination has been even more aggressive in giving new players a chance, in being flexible in team composition - but its too early to say whether such frequent changes with the team will turn out to be the best option.
we need to find a winning combination (historically, all champion sides in test cricket have been winning combinations centered around some prolific players) and give talent a (slightly long)rope. it baffles me why zaheer khan is still being ignored !
sure indian cricket needed a shake - and it has got one from chappell - but he will soon need to strike that balance between 'purposeful disequilibrium' and euilibrium.

Read the article & the myriad comments it sparked.I'd like to put my views on how I see cricket in India and what would ensure it gets/stays healthy - and call for reactions.

Getting Simpson, Wright & Chappel to coach us has brought and placed Indian cricket team outside the square.

Ganguly though isn't deserving of a place in the team now, cant be ignored for his contributions as a leader.
(It was Ganguls who put the first "!?What the.." into Australians in Brisbane - with Cap & Bat - during the squared test tour of Australia, which was picked up by others in the team to give the Cricketing World a memorable show till the last ball was bowled). So lets refrain from picking on him.

To take ACB's eg in displaying a lot of patience with a member in the team going through a form slump, plenty of encouragement and support on & off the field but only reward a place back based on proven performance, if ousted.

There are many youngsters in the pick showing a lot of promise. To ensure they enjoy a long and illustrious career, a) the Board must make sure that the team fixtures aren't crowded and players (both new and seasoned) dont burn-out
b) the Fans not to pressurise and scare the upstarts by having (and displaying) unrealistic expectations and outbursts of disappointment.
c) the Media & sponsors to keeping in check their money motives as youngsters need to be carefully moulded to deal with fame and wealth while keeping their sights firmly on the game

Awareness and a following of other sports must accelerate and stars of repute must arise and attract sponsors so that Cricket can be accepted by Indians fans as a sport to enjoy, in contrast to what in the present is the only source of mass entertainment apart ofcourse from tinseltown

One series win does not a great team make!

Harsha's piece, though ostensibly honest, reflects a dash of optimism bred though the just-concluded series. He is bang on when he hopes we will have a bevy of young talents exposed due to the current scenario. He is also correct when he decimates the 'babu culture' that had afflicted Indian cricket for so long. But he misses a very pertinent point, though he tangents past it!

The BCCI is not what we think it is. National politics should not touch it, but there should be public accountability emanating from all its spheres. It is what it is purely due to the public. The money, the standing, the individual limelight, are all owed to the public. The same public expects the BCCI to put together a structure and plan that takes Indian cricket to a higher plane. It expects BCCI to be a benefactor. This august body is anything but. It is rather a beneficiary, with no Democles sword hanging.

Indian Cricket needs an organization that is purely made of cricketers / ex-cricketers with a knack of administration, and with a passion for the game and nothing else. They should be motivated by the color red (read cricket ball) than by green (read moolah). Instead, red and green to them stands for opposite spectrums of the balance sheet. Money is important for development. It becomes poison when acquired for fill kitties.
The need of the hour is to form a body that is not only completely accountable, but also free from national politics.

What's with the hallelujahs all around after one good series win at home? At best, it is a step in a right direction. Still miles to go. If this is the general idea of high achievement, India is in a lot of trouble. I laugh at the author's idea of a treatise and the effusive praise for this 2-cents opinion piece. Get real, people.

As is the norm, interesting stuff, from Harsha Bhogle. He talks of how players from smaller towns are making the difference. I say, more power to them, and we need more of them. But, how ?

To borrow jargon from the stock market, Indian Cricket is like an undervalued stock. Not because there is too little demand for it. On the contrary, there is huge demand, but too less of floating stock available. Reason is, national team has been the only one that everyone is interested in. And, at any time, only 15 players can reasonably be seen to be part of the national team. While the rest of spin-offs (read : domestic teams) don't see too much demand, and hence have not floated their stocks, either willingly or unwillingly.

An analogy will be what happened during the Reliance spat. Many commentators were of the opinion that a split will actually help, since the value in the single Reliance scrip will be unlocked, and there will be more floating stocks available to satiate, and in turn, spur demand. Similarly, Indian Cricket needs the equivalent of more attractive, in-demand scrips. The way forward is to make the domestic competitions, and the teams taking part in it, as attractive as a career, and worth aspiring for, as playing for the National team.

Imagine, all of a sudden, we will have 30-35 teams, and there will be potentially 500-600 careers available. Who wants to say that there won't be more energetic young players, coming out of the woodwork so to speak, satisfied with pursuing cricket as a career. The only sustainable way to make this happen is to increase the prize money, provide more exposure (read : live TV coverage in watchable times) and basically, infuse some glamour into the domestic competitions, and make them worthwhile playing for.

The final ingredient that is needed is to have the cricket equivalent of allowing the stocks to be traded. Currently, in our system, there is not that much flexibility in player movements between teams. So, teams typically are born with the players, and make do. Flexibility needs to be introduced to allow the teams to trade players (and their contracts) to another team, for other players / considerations. This is the norm with most professional leagues. Now, only discards from one team end up playing for other teams, and there is inherent resistance from other players to such movement.

But, institutionalising the trading system will let all players know that if they don't fit quite well with the current team, other options are always available. Teams don't have to depend on destiny to throw them a bone, to get better. They can do with smart man-management. I mean, Indian Cricket has no shortage of liquidity. It is like all the investors sitting with loads of cash, with basically one scrip (with not much floating stock) to trade in.

Let us unleash 30-35 more scrips, and allow the investors to play their hand, and see the trading volumes and stock prices shoot up.

What are we waiting for ?

{---Also posted in theesra.blogspot.com--}

I agree with Harsha....every where around the world, the governing bodies make a lot of difference in spreading of cricket. U can see the examples of Zimbabwe and west indies where the board in-fightings has reduced the public interest in cricket. Even here in USA, we play regular cricket in NY and there are so many talented players that I see all the time and I feel that more people play cricket with lot of passion than even back home in India. But here too the boards have ruined everything. Even when they pick a team, they pick their personal favs, Old dying people and leave behind the real talent.

First off, let me start by giving my personal perspective on a few things. The Australia tour of 2003-2004 was definitely a great success for India, but it has to be kept in mind that Australia's two bowling giants, McGrath and Warne, were not in the series. I highly doubt we could have made 700-odd on the Sydney pitch in the last Test if Warney was around!! MacGill's figures: 38 5 146 0(2nb)
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in that last Test if those two bowlers were there.
Here's a link to put some meat to my case:

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/story/226257.html

Secondly, there was too much hullabulla created over India's subsequent Test series victory over Pakistan when we toured there eary 2004. People forgot that Pakistan were rebuilding after their thrashing in the 2003 WC, and were a very inexperienced team under the unprofessional tutelage of Javed Miandad. Enter the laptop-happy Bob Woolmer - and we get thrashed next time we play the very same, more experienced team!!

After the nightmare period that followed, our thrashing of SL was great to see, and I believe it reflected a genuine improvement in the Attitude of the team. Which Ganguly was pulling down through his lackaidasical approach to both batting and fitness...if Chappel's famous email is anything to go by, and if the allegation that he was spreading rumours to divide the team is true, then Ganguly definitely was a huge negative influence in the dressing room, which was only removed after he was dumped. I'm afraid that he will be brought back to the team as a batsman after a few defeats, and even after scoring 0s and 10s till two months before WC 2007, will still be selected because of his "past record" due to that power-hungry Dalmiya's commandment (if his camp wins the election again). For God's sake, Ganguly's century in the Duleep Trophy was definitely against an attack well below international standards and in the final, he was duly dismissed by the India-XI worthy Zaheer Khan for 0 in both innings!! http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/IND_LOCAL/DULEEP/SCORECARDS/EAST_WEST_DULEEP_12-16NOV2005.html
(Now don't say he's suddenly a genuine international class all-rounder because he took 3 wickets in the first innings!!)

Most disappointing is the non-return of Zaheer Khan. He took 23 wickets in 3 Tests, including a 10-wicket haul!! That is great consistent performance even if against below-international-standards opposition (unlike Ganguly's solitary good score). He should have been included in the squad instead of Sreesanth. Just put yourself in his shoes - such a cruel snub may only dent his morale, resulting in worse performances, starting a vicious cycle. I wonder whether it's something to do with Chappell. I think the BCCI has now given too much power to Chappell so that he can be the scapegoat of the team's failures, while they happily watch their Swiss bank accounts grow. Of course the BCCI's current set-up should be reshaken to have professional ex-cricketers running the show on a full time basis, rather than these bureaucratic-minded part-time corrupt "honorary" members with an unconstitutional life-time "Patron-in-Chief". And of course the archaic and cantankerously idiotic one-selector-from-each-zone system should be disbanded asap!! And we need a well-marketed and televised Professional League to create a more competitive pool of players to choose from for the national side. Otherwise, I'm afraid Indian cricket will Never Ever reach its true potential, which I believe is even higher than Australia's...

Agree with Harsha, but it is still a long way to go. Until unless the Board cleans up its act, Indian cricket will fluctuate between the awesome and the ordinary. The domestic cricket scene needs to be repaired a lot and lots of cricket infrastructure in the country is wasted as they only attract crowds for international games. Coloured clothing, good format (league home/away) for the games, snazzy marketing and we can repair the system. We must make stars out of our domestic cricketers, let them also feature in Adidas, Pepsi, MRF commercials. This way by the time they are fit to play International cricket they have already played under huge pressures of crowd expectation, constant media scrutiny etc. Also all the processes put in place for the national side have to reach all the way down to domestic teams and even more importantly to the junior teams. All this vision, has to come from the board, i think its high time someone influential and with a clear vision took up the mantle of the board. How about Ravi Shastri or why not you yourself Harsha?

Dear Harsha,
I heard you once say that playing with India acts as catalyst for Pakistan....so is it that a change in captain or BCCI re-elections that act as catalyst to improvement in Indian team performance?

Dear Harsha,
I had coincidentally written a similar letter in response to a article in another website. This was at the height of the Chappell-Ganguly imbroglio.

Well on the one hand it is laudable that kids from small towns are really getting an opportunity to make it big in cricket. More importantly as of now we have been very lucky that we the profile that has come through has a lot fire in the belly.

Imagine this, if there is a change at the top in BCCI and the ruling body is a combination of the Congress-Left combine and we let rural talent come throught.It will just be a matter of time before cricket team has reservations by caste, religion etc in addition to zone.

To compound the problem, cricket will go the hockey route with players playing the game to get jobs and with 0 passion ( for every Pillay you give me I will give you 4 Tirkey's+2 Ekka's+1 Topno and 1 Dung Dung) whose sole aim in life is to secure a job with the railways.

Im not saying that we should not have these rural stars coming through, but I would rather that there is a judicious mix of the Dravid's, Tendulkar's with the Dhoni's etc. For that we need JMD at the top and his machinations to ensure there is enough money for those that he allows on his turf.

Frankly, I am impressed by the discussion out here. I guess talking about cricket brings out the best of almost all Indians, save the ones who are fanatics about football or hockey and so on.

Anyways, before digressing further, back to the topic on hand. The Chapell- Darivid combine have taken the baton from the previous duo of Wright and Ganguly and have done a good lap ( the SriLanka ODI series), while they have even honours as of now with the SA ODI series reading 1-1. It is still early days to judge but looks like we are heading in the right direction. Chapell has induced a dose of the tough Aussie professionalism into the Indian cricket system, which augurs well.

However, even the Australian system has flirted with favouritism on various instances in the past.

And while we move forward and with bright talents from smaller towns, let us not forget contributions that can still be made by senior and established players, who on many days deliver matching winning performances.
Give them a fair chance to redeem themselves on the field and let them not be sidelined in the name of experimentation. In other words, let us not force these stars into premature retirement.
They took us to one world cup final and it was just one fabulous innings from Ponting that took the hopes away from India. That innings on any another day may have come from Tendulkar or even Ganguly.

Sports is an Industry and generation of profits is vital. For that winners are needed - big winners. Gone are the days one participated or watched sport just for the pleasure of being a part of.
You need professional management that is sadly lacking in India. Our sports governance is closely linked to our politicians and like our politics it is far from professional.
Greg Chappell represents modern management - performance based, open, team centred and goal driven.
The board members of BCCI belong to the old school - coterie, corruption, favoritism, camp loyalty, psychopancy and power mongering. Ganguly represents this school - his boys vs others, those not paying obesience to Lord Sourav would be sidelined, a victory here and a century there would be sufficient to ensure long term presence in the team. Statistics would be unleashed (like the maximum number of wins - no one wants to leave out 9 wins against Zimbabwe and B' Desh out of the 21 victories) to whip up emotion instead of accepting changed circumstances. In the last 40 years of Indian cricket, so many brilliant players have suffered because of this politicking and psychopancy. The board and the captains were in collusion to promote regionalism and parochialism. If Gangulys & Gavaskars did not fancy the face of a good player then there is very little chance for that poor soul.
We are hoping aagainst hope that Greg Chappell's arrival would transform the board's way of functioning. Media people openly write that Ganguly's future is linked to that of Jaggubhai! The players have to be in one camp or the other! Now Bhajji & Yuvraj have shunned the Ganguly camp seeing the direction of the wind. Is it possible to usher in an era of professional management with a proper CEO , managers, 3 selectors (instead of the lousy 5 people zonal committee - we may as well have 21 selectors with one from each state), money flowing down the line to state and district players, many more academies offering facilities and coaching, merit based selection etc?
That does not seem possible in the near future with the Powars, Dalmias, Bindras et. al circling around the treasure-chest of Indian cricket like vultures.
Who knows? A couple of defeats in the matches, Dalmia faction managing a victory in elections and calculated planting of stories in the media could see Greg packing his bags back to Australia, Ganguly back in position as captain, Dravid licking his wounds and youngsters from districts switching to some other sport!
After all India is the mother of betting, epicentre of match fixing and underworld connections. Our police threaten to arrest Nicky Boje and Hershelle Gibbs if they tour India but the Azhars, Jadejas and big ex-cricketers did not spend one minute in custody despite all evidence exposing them. Who are protecting them from law? Why no media is writing about this absurd situation where outsiders laugh at India's double standards?
And still you expect a change in Cricket fortunes! Don't you worry. I will also waste hours watching cricket passionately despite all these. We are addicted. That is the strength of the corrupt system!!!!!!