Monday, December 10, 2001 Jagmohan Dalmiya is in such a hurry to revive Indian cricket that he has wasted no time in organising a three-nation one-day tournament in Dhaka. And since Dalmiya is driven by an all-consuming passion to restore Indian cricket to the pinkest of health, the Dhaka jamboree could be part of a masterplan to keep the Indian team match-fit for the one-day series against the English who, God save them, will be off home for Christmas by then.

One of the first things Dalmiya did after assuming the presidency of the Indian cricket board was to dash off a show-cause notice to the Indian coach, John Wright, right in the middle of a series in South Africa. Team preparations could wait, the president's fury needed to be quelled first: why had the Indian team's performance been so sub-standard?

Why indeed? India had just won two Test matches away from home; no matter that one of them was in Zimbabwe, this was still more than any Indian team had achieved in 15 years. Dalmiya wanted to know why India weren't beating the hell out of South Africa, the world's second-best team. Clearly, here was a man whose ambition would brook no realism.

And of course, Dalmiya will brook no nonsense, certainly not from the English. He will go to any lengths to deny the ECB a fourth Test when India tour England next July. So what if his predecessor made a commitment, so what if an itinerary has already been drawn up and so what if this was to be the first time India played more than three Tests in England since 1979? Dalmiya bows to no one, definitely not to Lord MacLaurin.

But Dalmiya is a fair man. He is amenable to an honourable exchange: you can have your Test, he has told the English morons, but give us an extra one-day match. Our hearts should swell with pride: the whites have been shown their place, national honour has been redeemed once again.

It would be unlike Dalmiya to rest on such minor laurels, however. He is now out to redeem the integrity of the subcontinent. Pakistan are one of the teams in Dhaka, and having got the Indian government on his side in his war against the ICC over the Mike Denness affair, Dalmiya is now busy trying to convince the Prime Minister's office to resume cricket ties with Pakistan, even if India will have to play for six months non-stop as a consequence.

By December 23, India will have played six back-to-back Tests in two different continents. Before we know it, England will be back for five (or six) one-dayers. Then Zimbabwe arrive to play two Tests and five one-dayers. We might be bidding goodbye to both teams in that series on the same day: as Zimbabwe go home, India fly to the West Indies for four Tests and seven one-day matches. The alternative is to have a one-month hole in the cricket calendar - a criminal waste, surely?

Dalmiya had a lot to catch up on too. Thanks to a government ban on so-called offshore venues like Sharjah, Toronto and Singapore, the Indian team have played a mere 24 one-day matches this year against an average of 40 during Dalmiya's glory days. The balance had to be restored, and quickly.

So here we are: if Dalmiya's Dhaka plans go through, Sourav Ganguly will have no more than a week to get to know his new-born daughter and to work out a way to deal with those nasty balls aimed at his ribcage. The Indian fast bowlers will carry their injury niggles to another series and the entire team will feel like tourists in their own homeland. But heck, there is money to be made, votes to be won and television producers to be kept happy. The show must go on.

Sambit Bal is editor of Wisden.com, India

More Sambit Bal
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