Too little cricket

To paraphrase an old Israeli joke about the United Nations, in Indian cricket there are always four sides to every issue: my side, your side, the right side and the cricket board8217;s side. Accordingly, while the shrinking pool of talent for international fixtures and the millions left bemused by the team8217;s tumbling fortunes ponder over mindless schedules and mindboggling strategy, chairman of the selectors Ajit Wadekar has offered an entirely original take on the Colombo debacle. India looked pathetically lacklustre in the series against Australia and Sri Lanka, he said, because of the long layoff two whole months, would you believe it! from international cricket after the World Cup.

In that one non sequitur of an explanation, Wadekar has amply summed up the BCCI8217;s blanket approach to a game that incites passions bordering on the fanatical in India: simply schedule more fixtures. No matter that last year India set a record by playing 40 one-day internationals, no matter that they will contest 53 ODIs andseven Tests in the first 13 months of the next century. Definitely, no matter that the fulcrums of India8217;s batting and bowling line-ups are nursing shoulder and back problems and there is no evidence of any plan to mould a wider circle of rising talent to step in and offer a viable mix of experience and youthful ambition to make such breathless scheduling viable. And certainly, in this never wilting enthusiasm for whizzing across to tiny grounds in Singapore and Toronto, there is nary an attempt to use the spiralling profits to fund a revival of an appalling dismal domestic circuit. Oh no, the gameplan is obvious. As long as one match follows on the heels of another, as long as the end of a tournament gives way in a blur to curtain-raisers for another, any controversy and every criticism can be effectively smothered. And if voices of concern over inadequate attention to fitness management and over a glaring incongruity between teams fielded and conditions on the ground still niggle, simply orchestrate anothergame of musical chairs 8212; drop a couple of hapless boys, pluck out two more from influential zones and declare the whole lot as a forward-looking squad. Accountability of the board? Whoever heard of such anachronisms!

And so, Sachin Tendulkar, nursing his backaches by wielding a particularly heavy bat to extricate his team from one hole after another, may speak of a consensus among fellow captains about a maximum of 25 one-day games a year 8212; but only in vain. Thirteen years into a literally backbreaking non-stop routine, and with a good ten years ahead expected from him, perhaps Tendulkar would be well-advised to take things into his own hands and work out for himself an optimum mix of games played and tournaments skipped. But then, in cricket, as in life, things are never quite that simple. After rumours of the lobbying that took place in the race to replace Azharuddin, Tendulkar is no doubt aware that it8217;s not just his back on the line, but also his captaincy.