Only if our cricket Board had waited for a day or two, they could have avoided taking those harsh decisions against the players. Those decisions were taken without realising that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties, and that the best team can always be humiliated by minnows.

Bangladesh, who were instrumental in causing a great uproar at home by defeating India, added another feather in their caps, scalping the world’s top-rated ODI team, South Africa, that too by a big margin. It’s unbelievable, but not impossible in cricket. Now will the South African board behave as nastily towards their players for this ignominy?

Just to prove how concerned the Indian Board is, an urgent working committee meeting was convened, calling up seven best former captains of the country, just to express their views on the issue. These, though, they had already conveyed through various available sources like the print and electronic media.

The future of Indian cricket was sorted out in a jiffy and now is the wait for its implementation. That’s typical of the Board. In a crisis, call a meeting of some past eminent cricketers for their views and at the ratification time in the next meeting, raise another issue to cover it up or ignore it conveniently.

Otherwise it is the same old wine in a new bottle. Same is the case of sanctimonious reports of the manager and the coach. Any Tom, Dick and Harry would have known these age-old shortcomings of Indian cricket and the perpetual lacunas in the systems.

... contd.