Thursday, March 28, 2002 Now that Kapil Dev has spoken, there is some talk about the attitude of Indian cricketers. The most surprising reaction to Kapil's utterances has been silence from the players themselves.

I agree with Kapil in that that the team needs committed players more than it does stars. But my contention is that this is nothing new: playing for individual records is something that is ingrained in the Indian psyche. Kapil himself set a precedent when he crawled along on wobbly knees to get past Richard Hadlee's world record of Test wickets.

Sunil Gavaskar, another great, has been equally guilty. In the Bangalore Test against Pakistan in 1983-84, the match was meandering to a tedious draw and the mandatory overs on the final day were serving no purpose whatsoever. Flustered, the Pakistan players left the field but Gavaskar stood his ground and convinced the umpires that by doing so, Pakistan had conceded the match. So they were made to come out and play again. Reason: so Gavaskar could reach an utterly meaningless century, upon the completion of which, play was promptly called off.

Cricket is a game where individuals are important – not individual records. The biggest bane for cricketers in recent times has been the advent of individual ratings and the media hype that they generate. Why they do so is beyond me. They mean nothing in the context of a team. Indian players have a host of individual records, indeed, the best partnerships for first through to the fifth wickets in one-dayers all belong to India. Yet, nowhere does this reflect in the team's overall performance. In Australia, a century in a losing cause ceases to matter.

When I saw Jimmy Maher and Nathan Hauritz steal a tie for Australia from the jaws of defeat yesterday, I was once again reminded of just how far we have to go in terms of attitude. I couldn't envisage an Indian pair doing the same, because it requires a certain self-belief and commitment to the team's cause to do so.

However, the players are a mere reflection of the system that breeds them. The Indian system is one that revolves around the glorification of individuals. The administrators could be least bothered about the team's performance. I learn that in the recent series against Zimbabwe, the manager was asked to leave the dressing room by the captain because he kept inviting in his friends and relatives to take photographs and autographs.

For officials, cricket is a vehicle to glamour and power, and scarcely do you see any meaningful planning from them. The preparations for the West Indian tour, for example, are in shambles. There is no camp, there has been no initiative to reach there earlier to make up for just the one tour game that has been scheduled, and, worst of all, the players who are free at the moment are not playing the inter-zonal Duleep Trophy. It makes a mockery of domestic cricket. Who has permitted them to skip this tournament? More importantly, why? I'm sure that the players won't mind it - it gives them plenty of time to do commercials and inaugurate showrooms.

If victory for India means changing the constitution of a referee's commission, or the realisation of another individual milestone, then the country is on a very wrong track.

Bishan Bedi, who took 266 wickets for India in 67 Tests between 1966 and 1979, was talking to Rahul Bhattacharya.

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