Now, supporters back home are baying for blood and who could be a better candidate to pour all the anger upon than the captain himself. Today, Mohammed Azharuddin is the scourge of all eyes and he must go. Yes, he must go. May be, he shouldn't have been captain in the first place.

But let passion not cloud our judgement. Let not one man become the villain and be held responsible for all the ills which plague Indian cricket at the moment.

That India blundered from one indecision to another -- like Sachin Tendulkar's batting order -- is now history. But that is how Azharuddin has always been and if the Indian board still kept faithin him where does the blame lie? Not on Azharuddin alone. Even today, Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur says Azharuddin is not to be blamed and there is nothing wrong with his captaincy.

Even Azharuddin believes so and he has every right to do so, especially when the man who is at the helm gives him a clean chit. In fact, after India's loss to New Zealand, Azhar had some good things to say about his team and himself. ``People should not have short memories and should not forget we have played very well in the last one year and won very good matches. We have had only a couple of bad series, like the one against Pakistan and now in this World Cup.''

He then went on to give reasons for India's inconsistent performance here. ``We have played a lot of cricket before coming here and it does have its effect. I salute my players for showing remarkable fitness and for not having broken down.''

Azharuddin still believes he should stay on as skipper, he said it in so many words. ``I don't think I have done badlyand if the selectors repose faith in me, I will be happy to stay as captain,'' he said.

The answer was in response to the question whether he wanted to stay as captain or not. Azharuddin, while making this statement, looked relaxed and at no stage of the press conference did he appear disturbed or unhappy. Either he is very naive or in the know of things.

His mood was in total contrast to those who had written their copies in a hurry, so that they could be present at the press conference. ``Who knows, it could be his last,'' was the reasoning of Indian scribes for putting themselves into so much of a `bother' for a few quotes.

The fall-out of India's exit from the World Cup had to be acrimonious. Gavaskar's allegations, the counter-charges and making one man the villain are not going to help find out the reasons for Indian cricket's debacle. That too at a time when more and more youngsters are playing the game in India and the money at BCCI's disposal is mind-boggling. Let personal vendetta and thedesire to control the levers of power not hide the real issue: India need people who understand the game and are transparent in their deals to run the Board.