In India, sports and the system rarely complement each other. Though compared to other sports cricket has a decent system in place, BCCI does not come without its own set of shortcomings.
The condition of the Indian team post World Cup demands for a serious SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis. A rigorous enquiry will help identify the issues and specify the possible solutions.
When Australia fared poorly in the Ashes, Cricket Australia pressed the accelerator immediately and brought about prompt changes. They were quick to find a solution, yet they weren't hasty in appointing the personnel.
Knee-jerk reaction
India's, on the other hand, has been characteristic of the knee-jerk reaction. To some extent, the speculative stories in the media are to be blamed. News of the retirement of Rahul Dravid was denied the very next day. Are senseless speculative solutions making the problem larger?
A few months ago, Dravid was the best batsman on earth in terms of technique; now all we want of him is to hand over his letter of retirement to the selectors.
That Laxman is not the fittest guy on the field has been known and accepted by everyone who understands the game, yet we keep hoping that he will repeat his performances against Australia, forgetting that years have been added to his age.
What then are the solutions? Do we continue to run our domestic competitions the way we have been doing for ages? Or should we not rather conduct a conclave of captains and coaches of the Ranji teams which, in the presence of the technical committee headed by Sourav Ganguly, will try to find five major solutions to overhaul the system?
TRDW project
In 2002, I had presented the Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW) project to the then President of the BCCI, Jagmohan Dalmiya, who announced the formation of the wing in less than 24 hours.
In the pre-TRDW days, many played for the country by default and some made their debut when they were close to their retirement age.
The wing, with the help of former experienced first class players, began the hunt for talent and players like Dhoni started to emerge from non-cricketing cities.
The unbiased assessment of the Talent Resource Development Officers (TRDOs) was so perfect that the players were fast-tracked into the India ‘A' teams by the chairman of the wing Dilip Vengsarkar. By 2003-04 some of them were in the Indian team.
The TRDOs spotted more than 30 talented players and seven of them, including Dhoni, were part of the 2011 World Cup-winning team.
Then why was the TRDW discarded? The regime at the top changed and with it the wing went for a toss. Even the zonal academies, which were conducted for six weeks before the NCA camp in summer, were promptly discontinued.
All these were replaced by academies for pace and spin bowling and batting which have become detrimental to the growth of the teenagers.
Confused
As one teenager confessed, “I am thoroughly confused. I have to listen to different coaches who have all sorts of solutions for one problem. The academy coach is not aware of the methods of the State coach and vice- versa. The State, academy and NCA coaches are not on the same page.”
The BCCI must appoint a fact finding committee under Ganguly. As he is still playing, he will know the ground realities and can decide better.
He should be allowed to choose his committee members and present his report of solutions in two months. Asking seniors to retire is no solution. We need to find replacements and start India ‘A' tours immediately.
