Big question for India: What after Kumble?

I can8217;t figure out if there is a Test match starting in five days or if the IPL is beginning on twenty eight.

I can8217;t figure out if there is a Test match starting in five days or if the IPL is beginning on twenty eight. Both are of course true and both have a role in the dramatically changing landscape of world cricket. The first represents an opportunity to Indian fans to cheer India again; after the bitter us-and-them series against Australia. The second is a big test on whether a fan can indeed support two teams with the same passion.

India have picked a good side, pretty close to the best available and I am particularly happy that the selectors have gone with Wasim Jaffer in spite of his misfortune in Australia. In the conditions that the Test series will be played in, he has been prolific and deserves another go. And it is nice too that Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra are tapping him on the shoulder. Competition is good and let us enjoy it because there is none in the middle order.

You would have thought that by now there would be a serious challenger to Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly. It seems, from time to time, that Yuvraj Singh will be that man for don8217;t forget his last match in these conditions produced a mighty century in a difficult situation. And yet, I am disappointed at his inclusion because my eye, untrained as it might be, suggested that he was nowhere near being fully fit in Australia. When he is fit, he is a joy to behold, lurking like a panther at point, challenging every ball to come towards him and, if possible, to pass him. In Australia, his likeness stood at mid-on. It was like watching that Dev Anand look-alike; the similarity was as distant. But the physios have given him a clean chit so hopefully I am wrong; hopefully he will stride out in Chennai when the occasion demands.

The other concern area is spin bowling. India have picked every spinner available. The real danger for the test team is not what happens after Tendulkar but what happens after Kumble! Will we, and pardon the incredulity, be better off playing on seaming tracks in England and bouncy tracks in Australia than turners in India? Talking of which, I hope there is some life in the pitches for the tests unlike the pathetic surfaces put out for the series against Pakistan. If we have another couple of those, one-day cricket and twenty-twenty will need no promotion!

Meanwhile, I am starting to get a little concerned, for the first time, about the IPL. Everyday there is a new report about a film star being signed up to do something and everybody seems to be worried about the entertainment around the IPL games. I must be seeing it wrong because I thought the T-20 format itself was entertainment. The one thing that the ICC World T-20 taught me was that nothing, absolutely nothing, could compete with the thrill of the cricketing contest. Now I get the feeling that people are trying to stage a variety entertainment show where the cricket match is but one of the components.

One of the joys of being in this game over the years is that I get to live in the real world. You can make all the comments you want before the game starts, you can allow all the posturing, but that is rendered useless once the bowler is at the top of his run-up. Everything after that is true and you are only rated by what you do in a real contest. Your friendly PR manager who slips in all those charitable quotes about you in willing newspapers is no good wasn8217;t that a gem about that Mallika Sherawat refusing to fly with scummy earthlings like us!!. He is a good man to have in the movies and on television soaps because nothing happens live there and the truth is never really needed. In cricket you still have to face that ball; the goggles, the tantrums and the 21st take for raising the right eyebrow count for nothing. I8217;m not devaluing it, it8217;s just a different world.

Now this unreal world is trying to clothe a real one and I8217;m not sure if it will fit. If Shahrukh Khan or Preity Zinta buy a franchise that is fine, that is still part of the real world, but if we fool around with the playing of the game, or indeed its

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propagation to the people, we will do it a huge disservice. The future of T-20 and the IPL lies not in being presented as Nach Baliye but as a contest of extraordinary skills. And believe me there are many.

T-20 is a variation of cricket, not a dilution of cricket.

It might require different skills but it requires substantial skills.

It will be disappointing if actors who speak other people8217;s lines try to usurp the game from those that don8217;t need any.