Or they could view the results from England and Australia as a magnificent opportunity to introspect honestly. Both words are important for if you don't introspect honestly you merely benefit airlines, hotels and incapable people. They could make the systemic changes that Indian cricket, like an orphaned child, has been crying out for; they could begin the process of trying to become number one again and, even if not always apparent, that is not a bad objective. Critically, they could begin the process of transformation; from looking at profit and loss statements to win and loss statements. Inevitably, the second takes care of the first.

Top of the list when it comes to looking for change is intent. If you have it, nothing else matters for paths present themselves. If you don't have it you meander your way through, occasionally stumbling onto success but not recognising it well enough to build a home there. Let us then, assume intent.

Armed with intent

The first priority then is to produce ready cricketers and therefore, to search for the process that is most likely to produce them. The current system has worked in parts, some extraordinary players have been spotted and nurtured over the years. It is not a wicked system but it works upto a point. Being consistently excellent seems to elude it.

The key to any resurgence is not to seek to produce the best national team but the best set of players immediately below it. If your first class system is strong, the national team is automatically strong; the unfashionable always comes first. You cannot produce great leaders without a sound moral base and you cannot build the first floor without the foundation below it. An intensely competitive Ranji Trophy will automatically produce a sound national team. And so that is where we need to begin. And that is where we need to be armed with intent.

Rather than many teams playing many games, we need to have fewer teams playing more games. We currently have 27 teams split into elite and plate groups. It was an idea worth trying but it is still too many teams and no one knows who plays the plate group anyway. There is a system of promotion and relegation, again sound in theory, but it does nothing to improve the quality of cricket. Hardly anyone in the plate group, in spite of Rajasthan's fairy tale, threatens to break into the national team. With 27 teams you should have had 8 fast bowlers, 8 spinners and 5 wicket keepers fighting to be in the national team. It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

12 teams for Ranji Trophy

I am suggesting no more than 12 teams in the Ranji Trophy and that means no elite or plate groups. Just 12 teams. I can see hear voices talking about 27 associations, about the need to spread the game as deep as possible, about organisational hurdles......but it is precisely by listening to those voices that Indian cricket has remained inconsistent. That is why intent must lead the way. Having 27 associations and teams is a decoy; it promises only numbers, not excellence.

With 12 teams, you will get 11 first class games each and that is good enough. It also means there is no room for the Duleep Trophy, a tournament that outlived its utility many years ago. The Duleep Trophy fills dates in a calendar, it does little else. It was meant to be a higher standard of cricket than the Ranji Trophy but it you improve the Ranji Trophy it becomes redundant.

It will mean combining some of the existing teams and the major deterrent to that is the vote at the Annual General Meeting and the grant that each state body gets; neither is necessarily conducive to producing great cricketers. Yes, you will lose some cricketers but if the top 150 players in the country cannot produce a competitive national team, then the top 400 won't! You cannot dilute a system to protect its non-performing assets.

My first 11 teams for the Ranji Trophy are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh (including Hyderabad), Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Gujarat (including Vadodara and Saurashtra), Central India (including Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkand), Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. That leaves a 12th and I think the Railways for their sheer determination and ability to fight the odds, and their commitment to employ cricketers, deserve to be the 12th but with a share of the grant from the BCCI so they too can look the other teams in the eye.

It will mean no place for Kerala, Goa, Tripura, Assam, J & K, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa and Services but their recent contribution to Indian cricket has been negligible and so they must go into a catchment area. It is not discrimation, just a search for the best.

Accordingly the Ranji Trophy season could be played from mid-October to end-January with maybe, only maybe, an Irani Trophy match immediately following so that the best players in a season get rewarded in that season. The scheduling will be a bit tricky since you will also need to play a 50 over game along with the Ranji game but that is an area the BCCI has been pretty good at! After a little gap, I propose an “A” series against a visiting side from mid-February to mid-March which will allow a clear 2-3 weeks of rest before the IPL. June remains free for everyone and the best players then embark on an “A” tour in July to either Australia or England. Maybe the “A” tours at home and away can be in alternate years to ensure that the year isn't too packed. And to round off the calendar, a month in mid-August and mid-September will be completely free.

This is merely the draft of a thought process but it will allow the Test players to play the first 2-3 games in the Ranji Trophy and will require the BCCI to ensure the itinerary they want. It shouldn't be difficult.

There are many other issues. The composition of the selection committee, the most potent arm of Indian cricket, the direction the National Cricket Academy needs to take, the amount of international cricket, the clear window pre and post the IPL, the quality of pitches, the training of Indian coaches, the appointment of a permanent manager, the right media partners etc. If each of these is approached with intent as the guiding light, there cannot be darkness Maybe thoughts next week on those.