Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India. Ricky Ponting, Australia. Graeme Smith, South Africa.

Andrew Flintoff, freelance. Should we get used to it?

It’s often hard to judge the impact certain moments will have in the future, as they unfold in the present. In many cases, the tendency is to exaggerate the consequences. Arsenal did not drop out of the top four in the Premiership when Thierry Henry left. There would never be another Pete Sampras, we said with misty eyes, but as soon as the tears were wiped off, there stood Roger Federer. And though it did look extremely likely at the time, match-fixing did not kill cricket’s popularity.

However, it’s as easy to go the other way.

When Kapil Dev stood on the balcony at Lord’s holding up the World Cup trophy, you knew it was a moment that would spark something big, especially in a nation as starved of international sporting success as India was. But did anyone see the complete shift in power coming? Did they see Indian rupees taking over the game to such an extent that there would not be enough time for advertisements between overs, leaving high-profile commentators plugging motorbikes on air even as Sachin Tendulkar crafted a masterly century out in the middle? In fact, two-and-a-half decades down the line, the Board of Control for Cricket in India could very easily drop the last bit of its title.

Similarly, it’s been impossible to tell where the Twenty20 revolution is headed, and this time it’s all happening at breakneck speed. In the last two years, we’ve debated, endlessly, the probable demise of Test cricket and the near-certain death of one-dayers as we know them. A rebel league sprung up, and has since been crushed. The Sri Lankan board cancelled a Test tour of England so their players could play the IPL, and an extremely reluctant West Indian outfit was dragged, kicking and screaming, to fill in for them. Many see cricket organising itself more on the lines of football, where battles between clubs dominate the calendar with national teams coming together for major tournaments once every couple of years.

... contd.