10 ways to revive Indian cricket

Just check the staggering difference! Compare this; India made 1 run less (376 runs) after playing two innings against weaker teams such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and losing 20 wickets, compared to the 377 runs scored by Australia against a formidable bowling attack of South Africa for the miserly loss of just 6 wickets.

Forget the run-rate et al. The contrast is strikingly preposterous, and should bring over-enthusiastic semi-patriotic Indians displaying their silly histrionics on public streets to their rightful senses. The Men in Blue were essentially second-best, and that is being remarkably charitable. Also, they faltered and fell. It happens.

Now the Australia-South Africa game was breathtaking cricket, and truly riveting stuff which made the grand sport come alive for the first time in Calypso land, so far obsessed with match-fixing, mayhem, murder and Mushtaq Ahmed.

Back home, fat-fed, money-grabbing, incompetent patriarchs of BCCI are already convening to do further damage in the name of rescuing Indian cricket. God bless us all!

I am not getting into details just yet, but given below are my instant prescriptions to first salvage operations, before we get into serious over-drive to ameliorate Indian cricket.

10 PRESCRIPTIONS TO GET INDIAN CRICKET BACK ON TRACK AND FAST

1)Greg Chappell should be asked to board Qantas by Economy class, and he may please carry the Vision 2007 document with him. I suspect Chappell will play dirty games once again, as he is incapable of owning up to his extraordinary blunders and will apportion everything to "collective failure." What about prime responsibility, Greg?

2)Sachin Tendulkar should promptly announce his ODI retirement, and focus just on Test cricket and hopefully, further greatness.

3)Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman by far even today, must take moral responsibility for the insipid, cowardly display largely because he stupidly towed Chappell’s line throughout the last 2 years. India needs a captain with an independent mind and daring courage. A risk-taker. Rahul is an outstanding cricketer, but a tragic victim of his own insecurities.

4)Sharad Pawar should save India from acute embarrassment and further humiliation and not run for President-ship of ICC. Get your house in order, Mr Pawar, it is collapsing International cricket is better off without India’s dubious, shady ways of self-aggrandizing administration. Even Vidharbha farmers can do with some appropriate attention, Sir! In fact, the BCCI should take full responsibility ahead of even Guru Greg or whatever his chamcha scribes in the media call him.

5)All players must be made to compulsorily play domestic cricket, and it should be made part of players’ contracts.

6)60 per cent of the players' individual endorsements must be contributed to the common distributable pool. It is after all a team game, right, Sachin?

7)Appoint either Sourav Ganguly as captain with Yuvraj Singh as deputy (till he stops bashing people in Page 3 parties) or risk the Punjabi party-animal as skipper with MS Dhoni as vice-captain.

8)Focus on becoming a better Test playing country; truly, this is where BCCI has short-sold Indian cricket for mega dollars. Go back to the roots, guys!

9)John Buchanan maybe a great choice ideally, but after the traumatic experience under Chappell, an Indian coach may be a palliative cure and much-needed respite from an autocratic bully. Sandeep Patil, Anshuman Gaekwad , Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath, could be considered. And for heaven’s sake, have a separate batting and bowling coach this time.

10)Only ex-Test and international ODI players should be made selectors. And both the captain and the coach should have a vote in the final selection.

I still believe Indian cricket will bounce back with a vengeance. With determination. And will-power. With self-pride. With the enormous talent it possesses, it will.

But some hard decisions need to be taken now. Now !