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•You might just regret it. Hockey was taken to all these countries and we can’t even qualify for the Olympics.

We are talking of the good of the game and making it a global sport.

•Once the Chinese figure out the game, you might discover new kinds of spin swings that you could never have thought of.

They are going to figure it out in the next four years. They’ve taken it very seriously. The Indian board has assigned a number of coaches for training in schools, starting at the grassroot level. And by the next Asian Games they will be ready to challenge quite a few of the major cricketing powers.

•I can’t let you get away without asking for some stories. You’ve spent so much time with cricketers. What about Harbhajan?

Harbhajan is the joker in the pack. The team tells me he keeps everybody in good humour, he lifts the spirit of the team when they are down. When the hearing in Australia was over, they were all sitting in my room, and Dhoni asked Sachin, ‘What did he really say?’ and Sachin said, ‘No, he didn’t say anything.’ So I asked him, ‘You didn’t say anything and we believe Sachin, but the Australians are accusing you of using the same in Mumbai.’ He said, ‘No sir, I’ll never lie to you. I never used the word. When the crowd was making monkey gestures, I just said your friends are calling you.’

•But he is a fighter. Matthew Hayden called him the most charged player.

He is a fighter, but in the game you have to have a certain code of conduct for the players. When I left Adelaide, I warned him to be careful and that this kind of thing should never be repeated. There may be the greatest of provocations but...

•But the Australians provoked them.

I said there may be the greatest of provocations, but we Indians have our own standards and ethos.

•You would have banned him if the monkey charge had been true?

Absolutely. The Indian board has zero-tolerance... the word is banned.

•But at the same time we celebrate that this Indian team now gives it back.

Yes, but giving it back within limits is fine.

•One of the lowest moments in Indian cricket was during the series in South Africa. You saw Kepler Wessels knocking Kapil on the shin and Kapil took it. We’ve come a long way since then.

Yes, that is ok, but then it has to be within the norms laid down by the board of India.

•If the same incident had happened today, one Kepler Wessels hitting one Kapil Dev, how would this team have reacted?

The team would have reacted, the board would have reacted. It’s the administrators who have to take a call and not allow the team to get into this kind of thing.

•Is that the difference, the clout of the Indian board?

Clout, I wouldn’t say. The clout the Indian board has had in the ICC since we moved the World Cup out of England in 1983. That’s the time we established our majority in ICC in terms of carrying, in a democratic polity, the largest number of people within the ICC family.

•It’s only now that you are using this clout.

It’s not that we are using clout. We are using it for the good of the game, to make the game better for players in terms of protection, no victimisation, no double standards.

•Once you go you should manage to get a couple of umpires in the elite panel.

They have to qualify for that. We have to improve the standard of our umpiring.

•We had that Bucknor experience.

It’s a very tough job and somehow we didn’t devote any effort for that kind of thing. We are planning for Simon Taufel to conduct a workshop, we are using the services of Cricket Australia. We should not have the attitude that we don’t want to learn from the West.

•As is the case with foreign coaches.

Yes. I see no reason why we should not have the best coaches, the best physios, the best trainers if the resources are available. If they are available in India, then best of luck to them. If they aren’t available in India, then the board can afford the best.

•All the best in your new innings. You have a lot of things to do. Indian Premier League is going to be one great moment.

It’ll take a couple years to settle down but I’m sure it will be a wonderful event.

(The transcript was prepared by Mandakini Raina.)

editor@expressindia.com