The Indian Premier League is like an annually awaited cyclone, packing all the power of devastation in the span it is allowed, littering the land with whatever it roars in with, inclusive of people’s capacity for assessment and evaluation. Since it also happens to be the forum we are obliged to describe and highlight as a talent-discoverer ~ the Ranji Trophy or the Duleep Trophy has been much the same since long before the IPL but it’s fashionably acceptable to hand the newer experiment the honour ~ every new talent happened upon comes to be heralded as the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket. Since IPL success stories are thought so highly of as to be eminently eligible for any of the formats India dabble in, it is no wonder in all national contingents we have a core of worthies whom a section of the Press tries to promote.

Once the IPL noise dies down, slots are found for them to fill, the wheels grind on and the result cards are filled in. India, the country that bankrolls the game in a very fruitful partnership with its corporate sector, are seen not to have been able to win any International Cricket Council trophy in any of the formats. The customary reviews surface, packing in the usual references that skirt the dangerous territory where the high-ups stand the chance of the exposure that it is an elaborate business enterprise in which anyone lucky, or depraved enough, to have been deemed an insider pockets his pile and slinks furtively away. But the Asia Cup, which is not very far off, and the 50-over World Cup, which follows it ratchet up the pressure.

Mr Average Man wants India to win the matches against Pakistan in the continental competition. He has also persuaded himself that the World Cup is something he cannot really do without. That is how a crunch time rolls around, the hunger for glory rising in the pit of the stomach to crawl slowly up to every fibre of his being. It implies pressure on the players, but the wage-slave who cannot afford a stadium visit even if he lives in Ahmedabad would revel in a trophy triumph if he sees it happen. That is India’s bottom-line. But will India pull it off? Doubts can be seen to have been expressed, with an expert saying that we stand no chance anywhere without Jasprit Bumrah at full blast. Also, some of the bright ones seem to be foozling it on the current tour of the West Indies. Hopes burgeon in patriotic bosoms but the going, from now on, can only get toug