The road ahead of Team India is very narrow and awfully long. Lesson one from a disastrous World Cup campaign for a blasé team is there are no more shortcuts to success.

The hard miles ahead will make or mar a national team that for too long was peopled by players who, had they been in any other profession, would have been guilty of creating monopolies and indulging in restrictive practices.

One of the old boy networks that always ran Indian teams is about to be dismantled. Anger will certainly be the motive force now as sweeping changes are to be attempted by a cricket board stung by defeats on and off the field.

Let us, however, think for a moment if the vice-captain is the answer to the leader of men being sought.

Sachin Tendulkar was a self confessed failure at the captaincy who gave it up six years ago because he could not cope with the pressures and the sting of defeat.

There is, however, no reason to believe that such a team man as Sachin will not make a success of the job when it is offered to him again, whatever be his tactical shortcomings, the worst of which was to bowl his main weapons into the ground at the start of a series and having no one of quality to fall back on later as they wilted.

The other candidate on people’s minds is Sourav Ganguly, now thought of as the aggrieved skipper who was done in by the coach who worked to a one point agenda after he discovered the machinations that Indian skippers undertake as they try to play god.

What Team India needs more than a change in leadership is a change of mindset.

The first practice that needs to be looked at is the appointing of the captain first and then indulging his every whim in the matter of selection of his key personnel as he sits with selectors in awe of his cricketing prowess.

While Rahul Dravid may even have proved a point with his persistence vis a vis Virender Sehwag, who alone looked like a batsman even as the batting hit the depths of despair against Sri Lanka in the deciding game in the Group of Death.

For the record, Sachin promoted the likes of Nilesh Kulkarni, Sairaj Bahutule, Sujit Somasekhar and Samr Dighe. Not one made the international grade.

The point is not about captains and the players they favour because each one has his quota of likes and dislikes.

It is about knocking down the star system and rebuilding the team from first principles. A strong captain is least likely to yield ground in matters of selection.

A switch to the Australian system wherein the best team is first chosen and then a captain named may actually suit India. But this would be an ideal that will not suit a national cricket temperament that has been moulded by the need to take head on the kind of personality politics that rules the team.

A switch to an Indian coach might serve short term objectives because hurt feelings will be assuaged after two years of pain caused in Greg Chappell’s tenure when he was trying to change a system rather than prepare a national team given over to him to prepare for the World Cup.

Greg Chappell may have helped bring down the star system by debunking a few egos in order to make the team setup more democratic. He, however, seemed to do too little with regard to the major objective of building a team to play the showpiece event. His experiments are certain to be things of the past.

At a time for renewal, what may make a difference is a change of approach on the part of all concerned — the players, who must run singles and dive and try everything in cricket the humble way, the selectors, who must strike out on a new path and board officials who must understand first that the love of money as the primary index of success can lead everyone astray.