Azhar, come home

The only consolation for India after their spectacularly determined effort to hand Zimbabwe a critical win at Leicester is that they set a new World Cup record: the pace attack notched up 51 extras, overtaking Pakistan8217;s largesse of 42 to hosts New Zealand in 1992. From that ignominy, Imran8217;s men went on to lift the cup. This is too faint a silver lining in the grey-grey English skies, Mohammed Azharuddin is no Imran Khan. A captain whose batting has won the match for his side just once in years of packed schedules is extra baggage. But when he fails to motivate his team, to innovate and to marshal, he becomes an expensive, untenable liability. If India are to stay alive in the tournament, Azhar has to go. Now.

That simple remedial measure, however, requires not just courage, but a change of mindset, a shift that would threaten a whole cricket establishment that survives on inertia, on a genetic predilection for the status quo. quot;Crabs from various countries are exported in sealed tins. Only from India arethey exported with the lid of the tin open. Do you know why? Simple. These crabs are Indian. The moment a crab gets to the top, the one below him will pull him down!quot; Azhar said in a rare burst of wit and eloquence after he was divested of the captaincy in 1996. Yes, the crustaceans do stay put in the tin, but not because they are seized by a periodic impulse to assist the force of gravity 8212; but because the old boys know their interests lie in networking at the top, in quietly keeping all the crabs locked in a conspiratorial embrace. It8217;s a time-tested strategy. Keep mumbling, quot;the boys fielded badly, bowled and batted badly, we have to get our act together,quot; but never get into the specifics. Identify a glaring problem and you never know where it could end. Accountability has its own momentum, it could lead to a shakeout, the tin of crabs could reveal a can of worms.

We have a captain who boasts that quot;India is not Tendulkarquot; and yet attributes a three-run defeat to Sachin8217;s absence; who has made all of 31runs in two outings and yet says why blame the batting when the bowling is terrible; who drops a regulation catch and then shrugs, quot;it was someone else8217;s catchquot;. Can such a man ever command the loyalty of his team? When is the last time Azhar innovated in an era when innovation, not an armoury of batting averages, determines the balance in one-dayers? We also have a coach who has virtually no experience in pyjama cricket and whose ruminations on the game seem limited to a weekly column. Here8217;s a coach who, on the eve of the cup, rued that in any match only one Indian batsman performs whereas quot;we need at any time to have two, three batsmen playing well if we want to make a match of it.quot; Two, three when the rest of the world bats down to number 10? And bringing up the rear we have selectors who have become jetsetting celebrities without any noteworthy cricketing exploits on or off the field, who realise the wisdom in not changing, but merely shuffling the pack to provide a semblance of progress. And the rest ofthe team? Why should they crib when the system suits them so well, when carrying the tricolour in ads pays so much better 8212; and threatens so much less 8212; than fighting for victory on the field. They are only following their skipper whose smiling banter with his team is confined to cola commercials.