The Inner Waterloo

• Cricket's 'World Championship'? A flattering idea, yes, but this wasn't it. The Aussies were clearly the better team... even before they landed.
  
• We did well in Australia! Yes, but what of the patchy performances vs England, Kiwis, Windies and Zimbabwe?
  
• Ready for battle? They came better prepared, even diluting the aggressive Waugh doctrine with defensive fields.
  
• Game on! Sporting teams typically face only two imponderables, form and weather; ours also had to tackle board politics, selection squabbles, court cases.
  
• Captain courageous? Ganguly's opening-slot fiddles, persistence with Parthiv Patel and Nagpur pitch tantrums do not bespeak a great leader.
  
• Winning formula? Teams win through brilliant systems (Australia) or outrageous natural gifts (Pakistan). Muddling about somewhere in between is no help.

Ganguly has fumbled on at least two other fronts. His tantrum over the Nagpur pitch, while giving curator Kishore Pradhan his 15 minutes of fame, sent all the wrong signals. "This...immediately sent the message to the Australians that there was a major concern in the Indian camp. Boy, haven't the tourists capitalised," wrote Ian Chappell in a column.

Azad likens it to dropping your weapons before the war began. And the captain's now famous SMS to Sunil Gavaskar, asking him to help with the batting, may yet come back to haunt him. "Gavaskar's appointment has created dual power centres," says Guha.

So, can we take a cue from Australia here? They have embraced India, can we now return the favour? The count begins at the cricketing system itself. We need to professionalise the cricket board and adjust our international calendar so that top players play the Ranji trophy, at least its knockout stage, just as the top Australian cricketers play the Sheffield Shield. "Let young fast bowlers come up against the Tendulkars and the Dravids, or a young batsman clout Kumble. We will then know how good they really are," says Guha.

The zonal tug of war in our selection process can be done away with by appointing, say, three men of unquestionable credentials and equipping them to cast their net wide. "The best teams are the ones that are the best managed. In the course of time, teams that do well will always be the ones that aim to create (a set of) 20 best players," says Bhogle. How much did the Australians really miss Ricky Ponting? Why did Tendulkar's return for the Nagpur Test spark an early Diwali for us?

Easier said than done. "Till such time that we have 27 teams playing domestic cricket, we will never be competitive," says Bhogle. Jagmohan Dalmiya has no doubt done a fabulous job with the finances. Ranji players made Rs 200 a match in Azad's playing days. It has gone up to Rs 35,000-40,000. But the board has not yet started delivering value at the lower levels. At this juncture though, any suggestion to professionalise the board may be treated like heresy in the Middle Ages. After all, for some, being in the board is the very reason for their existence.