Beyond the players

Indian cricket has hit another crisis. Losing two consecutive one-dayers to South Africa""both by comprehensive margins""has once again raised debates about the recent performances of the team, especially in games played away from home. The issues too are no different: are bad team selections at fault or are there deeper underlying structural problems to blame?

It is true that India is without one of its better batsmen, in Yuvraj Singh. Some of the other players in the top order""Virender Sehwag in particular and perhaps even Sachin Tendulkar""have not been doing enough to earn their place in the team. The middle-order is weak, and the bowlers too have underperformed. The strength of this argument has been so strong that the chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, found himself under pressure to go to South Africa, though it is hard to see what he will be able to do there. Anybody who has watched the two matches cannot escape concluding that most Indian batsmen find themselves unable to cope with the extra bounce and pace that the pitches in South Africa generate. Most have been dismissed by fast, rising deliveries, and have generally looked uncomfortable with the seam movement even when they have survived. Adding to this is the failure to perform in the recent series in the West Indies. And the World Cup is only four months away.

For anyone looking beyond the temporary issues of form and injury, the state of domestic cricket in India has to be a factor and, indirectly, the increasing commercialisation of the game. With a few exceptions""and none recently""pitches in India are friendly to batsmen. They do not prepare batsmen to play on the quick, bouncy tracks of other countries. It is a plausible argument that easy pitches are prepared at home in order to allow batsmen to flourish and score lots of runs""which make sponsors happy that their batting stars are doing well, while the cricket board benefits because run-filled matches generate more revenue through TV contracts, which have got more bloated with each round of bidding. In other words, the villain of the piece is the way in which domestic cricket is played, and how the cricket board perceives its interests""with money-making becoming the most important objective. The players themselves seem to have become fat and lazy, with some leading lights doing just enough to not be dropped altogether. But there is a price to be paid for going down this road, and it is being paid now. The danger that lies ahead is that the goose that has been laying the golden eggs may get killed (as happened with hockey, which no one watches any more because India ceased to matter long ago).

Doubts will also be raised about Rahul Dravid's ability to lead the team""though he is one of only two or three players who walk into the team on the strength of performance. Most of the wins under his captaincy have come at home. Sourav Ganguly had a better record, but he led a better team. Greg Chappell, the coach, has made his share of mistakes and will find his position undermined, which might affect his efforts to revamp the poor work ethic of the team. The pity is that none of these issues is likely to be resolved in time for the World Cup in March.