Following India’s debacle at the World Cup tough measures were always on the card. BCCI President Sharad Pawar promised stern measures, and those measures were made public yesterday by the BCCI Working Committee. This is probably the biggest shake up ever in Indian cricket. India has performed poorly in the past, and tough measures have been promised before. But, most of the time they turned out to be regressive knee-jerk reactions which did little to improve Indian Cricket.
So, has BCCI learnt from its past mistakes? Will these measures herald a new era in Indian cricket? I shall analyse BCCI’s statement in detail and try to find the answer.

“The working committee appointed Ravi Shastri as Cricket Manager for the India’s tour to Bangladesh. It was further decided that Venkatesh Prasad will be the bowling coach and Robin Singh, the fielding coach for the tour.”

In my opinion appointment of specialist bowling and fielding coaches is probably the best news to have come out of the BCCI meeting. A bowling coach is necessary as its impossible for a Coach who was a batsman to help a bowler with the finer aspects of his game.
Over the past few years India has produced several promising bowlers who faded into the oblivion after an impressive beginning - Irfan Pathan being the latest of the lot. Perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if a bowling coach was there to assist these young fast bowlers.
Ravi Shastri has been appointed as a manager who would also fulfil responsibilities of a coach. My pick as a coach would have been Dav Whatmore. Whatmore has done wonders for Lancashire, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But Shastri is a man with credential. It would be interesting to see how he performs if he is given the position of a permanent manager.

“The Working Committee has directed the Selection Committee to send a young team to Bangladesh under an experienced captain. The selection committee, after discussions has appointed Rahul Dravid as captain for India’s tour to Bangladesh, Ireland and England.”

Although Rahul Dravid has received a lot of flack for his captaincy, he is not the reason we performed poorly. He has been much criticised for the decision to bat first against Bangladesh - but I still believe that given the information he had he actually made the best decision. There is only one person in the team who can do a better job than Rahul Dravid - Saurav Ganguly. According to reports he himself isn’t too keen on a second innings as a captain. I am glad that BCCI didn’t commit the folly of sacking him, just for the sake of finding a scape goat.
However, I am disturbed by the fact that the Working Committee is interfering with team selection. The selectors must always pick the best team, irrespective of the age of the players. Yes young players must be provided adequate opportunities - but only if they deserve so. Indian cricket isn’t overflowing with talent, and unfortunately we dont have a young Michael Clarke or Kevin Pietersen. Since 2006-01-01 Kaif averaged 18.94 from 22 matches. In the same period Raina has played 10 matches and his avg is 16.37. I hope that young stars do get more opportunities but experienced and performing players shouldn’t be shunned either. Proper implementation of rotation policy is what is required.

“With a view to strengthening domestic cricket, efforts will be made to ensure that all Test / ODI Cricketers play Irani, Duleep, Challenger and some Ranji Trophy Matches. All the players will have to play a stipulated number of domestic matches when not playing for India”

Again, another very positive move. India’s domestic cricket has been languishing because top XV players are rarely available for domestic cricket matches. However, the BCCI on its part needs to schedule international carefully, so that it doesnt clash with important matches in domestic cricket. Since, schedules are decided far in advance, nothing much would change immediately. In my opinion there shouldnt be more than 80 days of international cricket in a year. Considering the financial implecations of cutting down on the number of matches played per year, I do have my doubts. The question is, how serious is BCCI about improving the level of domestic cricket?

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