Whose fault is it that both poor Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja could not play deliveries zipping past their ears? Whose fault is it that players today have no idea of the basics of batting technique? A country which has produced great players like Sunil Gavaskar is now struggling to find players who are adept at tackling the short stuff. Are Raina and Jadeja alone to blame for their inadequacy or does it have to do with their basics?

I can understand the cricket administrators pushing the theory that they are not competent enough to judge a player’s technical ability and that they have coaches and technical committees to do this work. Is the system not in place because it is not required? For isn’t it commonly said that the secretary of the state associations select the teams and not the selection committees?

I am deeply saddened when I go to coaching academies and see talented youngsters being ruined because they do not have access to proper personalised coaching. Private coaching schools with their first-class cricketer-coaches are so busy filling their coffers with numbers that they are ignoring the time-tested theory of imparting individual attention to master the techniques.

I am yet to meet a coach who discusses the transition of the game from side-on to square-on. Who is there to tell the impressionable youngsters the pitfalls of opening their stance or even how and why, with the inception of helmets, the technique of playing short deliveries has changed?

I am yet to meet a coach who can sit and argue for and against the shift in batting techniques over the years, someone who can methodically reason out why with the advent of the shorter games, the stance has opened up. Why did no one tell Raina that he cannot hook from his left shoulder? Is it because it is too late and nothing can be done to a player of his age or is it because nothing can be done about the technical deficiencies of cricketers being churned out in large volumes by many an inept and awfully commercial cricket coaching system?

Our cricket fraternity needs to think about what I am saying. If I am wrong and merely over-reacting then it does not matter and no harm is done. But it is terrifying if I am right for then we are doomed. Our cricket is finished, destroyed from the very foundations that made us the best team in the world for so many years.

It is time the face of Indian cricket is dramatically and drastically altered. Coaching should utilise the newest technology but the oldest of techniques.

It is time that the BCCI steps in and establishes a system of grading, approving and affiliating the coaching academies that should be made to practice a pre-defined and properly laid-out coaching procedure.

I wish coaches could go back to the old ways of cricket and coach for the simple love of coaching. I wish the cricketers could go back to the old way of enjoying cricket and play for the love of the game.