Date-stamped : 03 Jul96 - 22:16 4 July 1996 World Cup fever has left genuine article crippled Indian Viewpoint: Ashis Ray AS the touring Indian cricket team embark on their endeavour to save the Test series against England at Trent Bridge today, the scene is starkly different from the one a decade ago when India were, at this point, two up and on the brink They were denied then by a draw, but achieved the feat when the two sides last met in the sub-continent in 1992-93. So what could have happened in the interim to cause the visitors` decline? The writing has been on the wall for all of 13 years, but it took time to take effect. Tragedy struck when India surprisingly won the 1983 Prudential World Cup. This event so transformed the Board of Control for Cricket in In- dia (BCCI) and cricket followers in India that a majority of them now consider the limited-overs game to be the real thing - and the World Cup as the ultimate in cricketing supremacy. These days tourists come to India essentially to partake in one- day internationals. If Test matches are at all a part of the itinerary, such engagements are often banished to lesser venues while the big grounds host the limited-overs stuff. Until Saurav Ganguly historically altered its image at Lord`s last month, his home city of Calcutta was better known for its crowds at Test matches than its cricketers. However, with a businessman who is apparently no respecter of the five-day game being influential both in this Indian metropolis and at the BCCI, not only is there little enthusiasm for Tests in Calcutta anymore, but cricket in India has been converted into a connoisseur`s nightmare. In most countries, key posts in cricket administration are gen- erally held by former players. Not so in India. There is, admittedly, promise of redemption in the near future, with a number of Test series scheduled to take place over the next year or so. But the damage may have been done. In most countries, key posts in cricket administration are gen- erally held by former players. Not so in India. The Maharajahs and Nawabs who once managed Indian cricket have made way for businessmen or politicians, and nowadays even civil servants. The Gavaskars and Kapil Devs wait in the wings. Some of them wax eloquent, electronically or in print, but avoid being too candid about officials whose only aim is to keep the Board`s finances in sound order, which they certainly do. With the establishment violating the game`s ethics, it is hardly surprising that despite his unprecedented desertion from the squad, Navjot Sidhu expects to be commiserated with rather than condemned. The BCCI have kept the issue hanging, and with it the Sword of Damocles over skipper Mohammed Azharuddin`s head - not exactly conducive for his or his team`s recovery. In other words, the challenge that Azhar and his colleagues have faced this summer is not so much English conditions or Mike Atherton`s men, but their enforced, relative unfamiliarity with Test cricket. Indeed, if India square the series over the next few days, it will not be because of the Cricket Board, but in spite of it. Ashis Ray, formerly cricket commentator with the BBC and Aus- tralian Broadcasting Corporation, is now consultant editor of the US-based international television news network, CNN. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)