The new captain had the country with him, a new crop of young players were making their presence felt and the performances in the various one day tournaments at the start of the new season were quite heartening, considering that the side was without Tendulkar, nursing his back injury, for most of the period. Even granting that the successive reverses in Australia constituted a debacle, it must not be forgotten that India were beaten by the strongest side in the world. Also, Tendulkar's batting was not affected by the extra load of captaincy and it might have been better to invest in the future by continuing with the policy of youth for some time under the same leadership. Constant chopping and changing cannot help in the rebuilding process and calling back the old guard must have irked Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, especially when they had made their stand on the issue quite clear. Not involving the captain and the coach in the selection process is a blunder of the first magnitude and for this the BCCI stands guilty in the court of the cricket fan.
Indian cricket lies in shambles.
But first there has to be a healing process. What is needed now is a strong personality as captain who can put personal egos into the background and lead from the front, selectors who give the captain and coach their due, and officials who can take a long term view and not tinker with the selection. All this takes time but a start has to be made.