A week is a long time in Indian cricket

We could go on talking on this subject endlessly, but it's time to bring this particular discussion to a close. My thanks to Ashok Malik, Devangshu Datta, Harsha Bhogle, Mukul Kesavan and Sambit Bal for taking part in it so enthusiastically, and for their insights. And also to those of you who took the time to comment and add value to the discussion.

Some of us were optimistic, some were not, but I think all of feel a sense of great hope for Indian cricket, and a tinge of despair that we can't actually do anything about it, that we must simply hope for the best. It's a roller-coaster ride for any Indian fan.

One day, well into a long streak of poor cricket, our coach and captain fight, as do BCCI officials over who will lead the board, and Indian cricket seems in turmoil. A few weeks later, we've beaten Sri Lanka 6-1 and the roses are out. Shortly after that South Africa is beating us and our coach is accused of showing his finger to the crowd. At every corner there is something unexpected, and no way of knowing whether things will get better or worse. We just watch and chew our nails, and it's a wonder we have any fingers left.

This discussion remains, though, as a capsule of what all of us felt at one point in time. Here's my suggestion: let's come back to it in five years time, on November 28, 2010, and see how everything we've said holds up.

Hopefully we won't still be fighting about Sourav Ganguly.