But see the air they breathe. The BCCI has always been a money first organisation. The product and the customer have meant little and hence, the strife it finds itself in. Player contracts are a mess, there is far too much meaningless cricket, there are no A tours to speak of, the academy is, well, there somewhere and there is no coach. The BCCI is always looking at tomorrow, that perfect mirage, for it glosses over a grisly today.

The BCCI believes it has eighty days to find a coach and that boiling oil from hell will land on it if one is found twenty days earlier! They could, for example, appoint a new coach by the end of July so that he can travel with the Indian cricket team, get to know the players and be ready by end September so that he can begin in earnest for the one-dayers against Australia without having to feel his way around while up against the world champions. It is a question of priorities as it is for India’s young cricketers who are snowed under by Indian television full of equally young and impressionable reporters.

So how do we stop our cricketers from believing they have made it when they are merely scratching the surface. Dinesh Kaarthick is a fine young cricketer but at 22 he has to be left alone to work on his skills, to challenge himself, to become complete. So too with Sreesanth who strikes one as being of more fragile temperament.

... contd.