The Best Thing For Indian Cricket

....fans since the 1983 World Cup victory is this ignominious exit. India has crashed out (bar a miracle on Sunday) and though I am heartbroken, I actually think something good can come of this.

1983 and 2007 will hopefully bookend an era of excesses in Indian cricket and more importantly in the Indian cricket fan. While 1983 turned cricket into an unhealthy obsession in India, 2007 hopefully will douse those all consuming passions. We needed this bad.

We need to clean house in Indian cricket starting from the very top. Heads should roll. No more part time BCCI executives please. Having part timers is one of the biggest reasons why Indian cricket has suffered so much. These part timers are less interested in developing the sport and more interested in the moolah they can make in their tenure. A full time executive on the other hand can actually be paid for developing the sport. What a concept!

Out with the Pawars, Shettys, Vengsarkars. Why stop there? Out with Chappell, Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble, Harbhajan, Sehwag. Heck if Laxman can stay out of the team because he wasn't a good fielder, Ganguly can surely be shown the door. And while we are talking of cleaning, can someone cut Dhoni's hair?

Any self respecting bunch of people would see and smell the rot in Indian cricket. However, self respect is peripheral when the powers that be have put blinkers of lucre on themselves. Suspend all international matches for a year. Get rid of every guy on the team who makes more money from corporate endorsements than from match fees. Pour money into domestic cricket. Raise its standard so that we can fill stadiums for Ranji matches with people who would gladly buy the tickets. Get the best of them to tour other countries. Select the best of those into a national team.

We have put the international horse before the domestic cart for too long. And the Indian cricket fan has a lot to answer for. We have accepted too little, been happy with lesser still. Let us shun the tamasha and remember that customer is king. We don't want tamasha, and they won't give us tamasha. We want cricket - and we demonstrate that - and they give us cricket.

I for one accept responsibility for my celebrations for Tendulkar's centuries in meaningless matches in Sharjah. And for exulting Sehwag's sixes in one more unending one day series named after Pepsi, or Hero, or LG, or Sahara. I plead guilty to staying up at night and following meaningless run chases in Kuala Lumpur on my computer. Thankfully I never ordered (for $30) a stupid blue jersey made in Tirupur with Dravid's or Tendulkar's name on the back.

But I know people who have. And I hold you the Indian cricket fan responsible for this Bollywood tragedy that has become Indian cricket.