Indian cricket's first emissary to the island continent is young Ranji Trophy right-hand middle-order batsman Amol Muzumdar, now in Adelaide (South Australia) for a three-week training programme with the Australian Cricket Academy.

Muzumdar, who amassed 1,400 runs in the 1997-98 first class season, and won the prestigious Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award, left for Australia last week. The 22-year-old Mumbai batsman can thank joint efforts by the newly-instituted Omtex Sports Academy in Mumbai, ACOSA, a sports promotion and cultural organisation in the same city and Bank of Baroda, who will sponsor his stay in the eastern Australian metropolis.

Deepak Khanolkar, financial director of ACOSA, and known in hockey circles both in India, Australia and The Netherlands, has this tosay: ``Amol is a technically sound batsman, playing straight and upfront, but he could do well to soak in aspects of Australian cricket that involve improving temperament and technique.''

ACOSA launched and commissioned Omtex in January this year. The academy coaches players in the 7-14 year age group the `Australian' way. Its 250 students will experience new methods that are a first in India, expained Khanolkar, who played grade cricket in Australia.

The Australian Cricket Academy, run by Commonwealth Bank for the Australian Cricket Board, first negotiated with ACOSA in December 1998, thanks to Khanolkar's old association with former Aussie Test star Wayne Philips.

Muzumdar will train three weeks every day at the academy whose faculty includes Aussie greats like Ian and Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, Rodney Marsh, Ashley Mallet, Terry Jenner, Carl Rackemann, Craig McDermott. Muzumdar will imbibe skills relating to physical development and sports science besides enjoying individual attention in seasonplanning, goal getting and mental approach training -- so familiar in Australia's gritty campaign in the World Cup.

And characteristic in the performances of Mark Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne and Michael Bevan at England '99 and other Aussies who've excelled in recent times -- Jason Gillespe, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart Law -- performances that have seen the Kangaroos feature in three of the last four World Cup finals.

Bob Simpson, Andrew Kokinos and Lillee, working with the famed MRF Academy in Chennai have promised to light up Indian cricket with the Aussie style -- but with partial success.

The Aussie effect, by any reckoning, hasn't run deep enough, going by Azhar's squad's vulnerability in the pressure cooker atmosphere of one-day cricket. And a debacle of sorts seems to suggest high-level Aussie coaches and trainers alone will not haul Indian cricket out of the pit of mediocrity.

A notion that has prompted Khanolkar to put forth a suggestion to the Mumbai CricketAssociation that will entail inviting talented Aussie younsters to play league cricket in Mumbai.

Besides revitalising local cricket, for which spectator interest is waning, the move promises toning and refreshing the domestic game with Australia's `never-say-die' touch. In time for 2003 perhaps.