Indian Cricket - where to from here?

4 - 0. Two innings defeats. A team series batting average that is half as much as England achieved. 3 double centuries scored by the opposition batsman in 4 games. India has been absolutely walloped by England. Enough said.

The outcome and its causes have been analysed to death as well - its the lack of preparation, its the IPL, the players are jaded, the bowling attack is weak.

Lets face it - India had a good run while it lasted, but there was only so long that we could ride on the back of having a solid though temperamental opening pair, a world class though ageing middle order and only one truly world class bowler (for Harbhajan to be considered world class he needs to pull his weight on overseas tours - if Graeme Swann, with far fewer variations, can achieve consistently good results in all conditions, then so can Harbhajan - but he has not, and hence is not worthy of being labelled world class).

Coming back to the topic on hand, lets revisit the facts of India's humiliation in England:

1. India entered the series without its number one opener, and soon effectively lost the services of its second.

2. Of the reknowned middle order, one was forced to open the batting in 5 innings out of 8 and was magnificent in the way he went about his task - hats off to The Wall. But that meant that VVS Laxman was forced to bat at number 3. Now don't get me wrong - Laxman is perhaps the best back-to-the-wall batsman in the world, but putting him at number 3 in seaming and swinging conditions against a rampant Jimmy Anderson was almost sadistic - it exposed the weakest area of his game and gave him the least chance of success.

3. Sachin Tendulkar was off-colour - period. A couple of unlucky dismissals did not help either. But after a resurgence that has lasted over 2 years, he was bound to go through a dip sooner or later. He may deny it, but if history is anything to go by, the impending 100th century may have also had a role to play in his lack of fluency and focus. More is the pity - for a couple of solid innings from Tendulkar's blade in the company of Dravid would have done a lot to lift the team and fan morale.

4. And finally the bowling - the less said the better - having lost Zaheer Khan early, the series just exposed the lack of bite in the rest of the attack. This is still a young attack - but India does face a serious issue to deal with in this department.

Consider these, and add to this the purple patch that the England team is going through, and the end result is hardly surprising. Yes, we would have liked to see a bit more fight. Yes the body language was poor. Yes the fielding was terrible. But when you are having a bad day in the office, you quite often just try to somehow get through the day and crawl back into bed - you don't really have a big positive smile on your face and a skip in your step do you? Now imagine going through 3 weeks of this (as also sometimes we do) - with egos shattered, self belief at rock bottom and a merciless opposition hammering you relentlessly. This Indian team has shown a lot of fortitude and resolve in the past, but with the odds stacked against them, they had really found their Waterloo.

The question then is, what are the lessons learnt, and how does Indian cricket pick itself up, dust itself off and recover from this debacle. This is not the first time India has undergone such a tumultuous period, and I doubt it will be the last. Lets revisit one other such painful period in Indian cricket history to perhaps serve as a guide to how we might recover this time.

The time was December 2000 - under Sachin Tendulkar's captaincy India had a disastrous tour of Australia. The test series was lost 3 - 0, with no one but Tendulkar himself, and Ganguly to a lesser extent, providing any resistance to the Australians. Laxman provided something to cheer about at the end of that series with a glorious 167 that revived his career.

India then went on to lose 7 out of the 8 one-day internationals it played in a tri-nation series Down Under, involving Australia and Pakistan. The then coach, Kapil Dev, said the players were 'not enjoying the game' (sounds familiar?), and after India's only win in the series, Sachin bravely declared that the team was 'rediscovering its winning ways'. If all of this was not enough, India then suffered the shame of being defeated by South Africa at home in a 2-0 in a 2 match test series. Tendulkar took personal responsibility for the defeats and resigned as captain of the team. It was indeed a bad time to be an Indian cricket fan.

All of this though paled in comparison to 'Prabhakar Gate' which followed. The scandals and the reverberation it sent through Indian cricket were unimaginable. Mohammad Azharuddin, one of the pillars of the batting those days, was banned for life. Ajay Jadeja, the life of the one-day unit, was later banned for five years. Allegations were thrown left right and centre and the team spirit seemed to be at its lowest ebb.

It was from these ruins, that Saurav Ganguly had the task of rebuilding the side. And what a mighty fine job he did! There were, to my mind at least, 3 key factors that led to India recovering from those depths, and then rising to the number 1 position in world cricket:

1. The appointment of John Wright as coach - this was a masterstroke - John was exactly the sort of coach India needed at that point - he worked behind the scenes on building fitness, mental strength and attitude. He worked wonderfully well with Ganguly and the other senior members in the team (despite the occasional differences). The key was John Wright's appointment was based on a consultation with the senior members of the Indian team (Rahul Dravid in particular was a big supporter of John after his stint with Kent).

2. A revamping of attitude within the team - the Indian team till then had been a rather docile team - we had one fast bowler in Srinath who apologized to the batsman after bowling a bouncer, and another in Prasad whose face expressed more fury than his pace. The introduction of youngsters such as Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan did a lot to improve the look and feel of the team. These young guns were confident in their ability, and had no reservations with sticking it to the opposition, in word and deed. The 2001 series against Australia was a watershed series as far as a change in attitude went. Ganguly himself led from the front, with aggression beyond that we had seen from any other Indian captain. (I will never forget the bouncers he bowled to the Australian fast bowlers in a classic tit-for-tat response!) The attitude shift was a key reason for India revamping its image in world cricket. The shift also inspired the senior members of the side to pursue their dreams for Indian cricket and themselves more aggresively.

3. A focus on fitness - this was perhaps the most important change brought about in the Ganguly-John Wright era. The team which played the 2003 World Cup was perhaps the fittest Indian side I have ever seen. No surprise that it showed in their fielding and their ability to bounce back after a couple of early set-backs. Again Ganguly led from the front - he was always a safe catcher, but his ground fielding was always sloppy, both before and after his reign as captain. But as captain of India, the guy was Jonty Ganguly! He was diving, rolling and returning the ball with amazing accuracy! And that was an inspiration to his wards - the levels of fielding exhibited by India during those years were incredible. In an inspired move, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif were appointed 'fielding captains' during the 2003 World Cup - this gave the youngsters real responsibility and leveled the playing field, by giving them the power to 'admonish' the seniors during training if the fielding was not up to standard - an innovative idea that was so simple, yet so effective in buiding the spirit of the team.

Fast-forward back to the present - where to from here? What lessons can we take from that period of Indian cricket to help us pass through this? Well, heres a shot:

1. Fitness, fitness, fitness! - Stop making excuses like 'We have always been an unfit team - we work with what we have got' - fitness has got to be the number one mantra of the team. And just like England have done with guys like Samit Patel, India needs to take some hard stands against players who do not pay attention to fitness. Its downright shameful to see the paunches that guys like Sreesanth, RP Singh and Zaheer Khan carry. Its no wonder then that these guys break down so often. A strong message was sent to Rohit Sharma, and look at the way he is come back - leaner, stronger and hungrier. Particularly, in the bowling department, you need lean, fit individuals who are hungry, not overweight chaps who can occasionally get prodigious swing.

2. Blooding in the youngsters - I disagree with all those who say that the debacle in England was because the team did not play together in West Indies. I believe it was a very good decision to blood in youngsters on that tour - and couple of them did show some promise. Tours like the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh need to be used to blood in youngsters. When they are not on such tours, there is no point carrying them as passengers in the Test side (to those who believe sharing a dressing room with senior pros helps, I think you can learn as much from a senior pro playing in the domestic circuit or the IPL as you would sitting in the dressing room). Instead, when there is little or no chance of the youngster playing, send him off to play on India A tours (for some reason these seem to have dried up lately). Even if you do want to carry a youngster along, make arrangements for the youngster to play for one of the local sides while the team is touring. He can always be called upon to play for the Test team if the need arises, but at least the rest of the time he is getting some real exposure to the local conditions and players. Guys like Abhinav Mukund, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli need this exposure now, in order to serve Indian cricket well in 2 or 3 years time.

3. Off season - all of us need holidays and time off from work. There is no reason why a top class cricketer should not get time off from the game. But when a top executive is taking time off, he still has one eye on his business. He is still in touch with his staff, or at the very least is contactable if something comes up. He still keeps abreast with the market and global events, and all-in-all is still keeping his skills and his awareness tuned, in case they get called upon. Most importantly he applies for a specific period of time off work, and is expected to return to work once that time is up, irrespective of whether there is a major project running.

Similarly, a top-class sportsman must ensure his mind,body and skills are in tip-top shape to return to the game after his break. This is largely a personal choice, but the BCCI needs to hold these cricketers accountable. A fitness regime needs to be planned for each of the cricketers in their time off, and those who have quite obviously not stuck to it should be banned for a period of at least 3 months for them to whip themselves back into shape. Also, just as organisations do, cricketers too should have to apply for a specific leave period. Once their leave period is up, the cricketers need to return to playing cricket, whether in domestic tournaments, or club and county cricket in other countries, or at least return to training at academies.

4. Preparation - Its actually shocking how little value is given to preparation by cricket boards these days. Gone are the days when teams would play at least 3 warm up games before the start of a test series, and play perhaps one or two more in between games. These warm up games are not only a great way for the touring team to acclimatize, but also provide a fantastic opportunity for domestic players to shine against quality opposition. But preparation is not just about warm up games, its also about camps leading up to a test series - for teams to get back into the groove of touring and playing together.

5. Leadership - just as Ganguly and Wright led Indian cricket out of its dark ages at the start of the millennium, MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher now have a trying task on hand. I think its perfect that India is now going to play a few one-dayers and then play the Windies at home. This team desperately needs a jolt of confidence - hopefully these games can provide them with that opportunity.

But more importantly, Fletcher and Dhoni need to go about setting exacting standards of excellence. Dhoni himself is a supremely fit man - there is no reason why he should not push his team-mates to achieve similar levels of fitness. One gripe I do have however against Dhoni is that his batting and keeping in Tests at least leaves a lot to be desired. Dhoni is at a stage now in his career where he needs to decide whether he wants to be remembered as India's best captain or as MS Dhoni, plunderer supreme. I believe he is capable of being both.

Its been a humbling experience, watching India being humiliated like this (my desktop background at work has changed from a photograph of Dhoni slamming the six that won India the world cup, to a beautifully scenic picture of Whitehaven beach). But there is far too much talent in the country for us to suffer the shame time and again. Its time to pick up the pieces and plan for the next phase of Indian cricket. The big 3 in particular, would do well to have a heart to heart discussion with captain and coach, so the team can put a succession plan in place. A core group of 15 bowlers needs to be identified, trained and rotated so that India always has a solid, if not spectacular, bowling line up.

Interesting times ahead.....