And so, just as they pick the right project managers and sales executives, they will pick the right players and instill in them the need to play to a certain standard. As employees get sacked for non-performance, players will too and in course of time they will realise that you don’t play this game merely to be in the team but to win. Team players will be rewarded, in football the flamboyant striker gets a great deal but so does the solid mid-fielder who may not sell t-shirts but who breaks down opposition attacks.

Occasionally, just as the personnel manager’s nephew might get an out of turn interview, so will a player who knows the right people, but in the harsh world of performance and results, only the best will stay. Selectors will be accountable, so will coaches.

And development in cricket, and younger, newer players, will become an investment. I can see franchisees picking young kids and putting them on long-term contracts; maybe not even playing them for a couple of years till they are ready but ensuring that when they are, they are available only to them. One of the greatest problems in our cricket is the talent we lose in the age group 16-18 because of selectors who are not accountable and occasionally lured towards more personal objectives. The other major issue is, rightly, the need for education and a job. I can already see franchisees addressing both issues; send a 16-year-old to school by day and get him to train and play cricket by evening. If he makes it, the world is his oyster, else he has a qualification that the franchisee can find useful for employment elsewhere.

... contd.