After the Indian cricket team's debacle (4-0) in England last summer, it had been tempting to think of its showing as an 'anomaly'.
The team was suffering from match fatigue, it was said. They had had a hectic schedule ahead of the England tour and the World Cup that they won had taken its toll. It didn't help that the team bore the brunt of a series of injuries during the tour, with its best bowler, Zaheer Khan, walking off the ground on the very first day of the first Test at Lord's. If any gaps remained in this explanation, they were filled by citing the awesome credentials of the English team.
What remained unexplained about the Indian performance, however, was the abject manner in which Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team had gone down against the English.
Third time unlucky: India's Virat Kohli and Umesh Yadav walk off as Australia celebrate winning the third test
A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that prioritised the performance of its team over everything else would have taken care to examine why its eleven gave such a poor account of itself in England. But it did nothing of the sort.
In a reflection of how the razzmatazz around cricket has come to matter to it more than the game itself, a crucial BCCI meeting after the series did not care to take up the issue at all.
In hindsight it appears that the disaster that India's trip Down Under has so far been had been waiting to happen. Only this time there were no legitimate excuses to come up with.
It was a full strength team that had landed in Australia, being pitted against an eleven that was a far cry from the invincible bunch of Australians that had dominated cricket in recent years.
The era of Indian cricket which saw its formidable batting line-up take on the world's best in their own backyard has drawn to a close.
When seen in tandem with the humiliation in England, the thrashing the Indians have got at the hands of an Australian team that is full of newcomers can only lead to one conclusion: the era of Indian cricket which saw its formidable batting line-up take on the world's best in their own backyard has drawn to a close.
At the same time, blaming the team's aging superstars - VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar- for India's humiliation glosses over some vital statistics concerning the first three Test matches of the Border- Gavaskar series. While the fact that these three great batsmen of yore have failed to deliver is undeniable, let us not overlook the poor showing of the other four batsmen who are far younger in years.
Irreplaceable: Veteran Sachin Tendulkar leaves the field after being dismissed during the third Test
Whether it is Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, or Mahendra Singh Dhoni - if one were to exclude newcomer Virat Kohli for his brave effort in Perth - they have all been found wanting in this series. In fact, the only batsman who has not consistently failed in the England and Australia series is Sachin Tendulkar, who will be 39 this April. Rahul Dravid's heroics in England, with three centuries to show in the four match series, was the only positive coming out of that tour. This makes VVS Laxman the only aging superstar who deserves the flak he has got.
Focus on the aging superstars ends up underplaying the general vulnerability of Indian batsmen on pitches outside the subcontinent. In their heyday, Messrs Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and the since retired Ganguly - along with the younger Virender Sehwag-were able to cover up this basic shortcoming of Indian batsmen, with a couple of them getting into the rescue act in nearly every match.
In the series in England and the present one Down Under, they have failed to don their traditional role, resulting in the team's inherent weakness being exposed like never before.
For want of a better explanation, it is plausible to hold that advancing age is why our batting superstars have failed to bail us out of late. In any case, they are all past the age when they can think of a significant future ahead.
But if the diagnosis that Indian cricket needs an infusion of fresh blood is right, finding names that can replace our greats is a challenge whose magnitude is yet to be acknowledged. It is all very well to say that the days of Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar are over but there are not many names that come to mind as their potential replacements.
The problem is best highlighted by the failure to find a proper replacement for the number 6 position in the three years since Sourav Ganguly quit the game. What the debacles in England and Australia have done is to fully bring home the BCCI's lack of vision regarding a succession policy. A BCCI that thought in the long term would have groomed youngsters as replacements while the seniors were still performing, especially in matches in the subcontinent which favour our style of play.
Another one down Down Under: Peter Siddle of Australia celebrates after taking the wicket of VVS Laxman
The selectors' myopia on this front means youngsters will now have to be blooded at the international level at a time when the stock of the team is at an all time low.
Without being alarmist, there is reason to consider what this could entail. We may be staring at a scenario where India joins the ranks of the second rate sides in the world like the West Indies and Pakistan.
That quality teams can slip into mediocrity over a not so long period of time is best evident from the example of these two countries which were cricketing powerhouses in the past.
If that happens with the Indian team, the cricket industry that has come up around the game in this country-endorsements, IPL, cricket commentating on TV et al-could be in for a huge hit.
That India is the mecca of cricket today and the BCCI the richest and most powerful cricket body in the world has a lot to do with the commendable performance of its cricketing eleven in recent years. For, at the foundations of India's cricket industry lies the fascination of the average cricket lover with the team and its heroes.
In a nation with few heroes, cricket has been a source of national pride, granting players the status of demi-gods. But the intelligence of the average cricket lover has grown over the years.
In a nation with few heroes, cricket has been a source of national pride, granting players the status of demi-gods. But the intelligence of the average cricket lover has grown over the years. The sight of his national team being humiliated on foreign shores can put him off the game to an extent where he stops taking the wins of the Indian team on slow subcontinental pitches very seriously.
Once that happens, the game will no longer be the win-win proposition it is for all stakeholders at present. This means that it may be in the BCCI's own interest to get into a serious repair job once the Australian series is over.
Unfortunately, the noises being made by its officials about India teaching Australia and England a lesson when they tour the country indicate that they are yet to read the writing on the wall.
The former greats of this country who exercise influence on the way the cricket establishment is run in India must highlight the BCCI's folly. The Indians don't travel outside the subcontinent for the next nearly two years and this would be the time to build a young side, playing at least some of the matches on pitches that are similar to those abroad.
What must not be allowed at any cost is for any victory in home series in the near future to be seen as reason to persist with the status quo or compensation for the humiliation abroad. To do so would to be expose us to more ignominy when the team travels to South Africa in December 2013. devbrat.
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