It's up to Kumble & Co. to build Team Karnataka

BANGALORE: Karnataka chief minister BSYeddyrappa needed to do something to get into the limelight for the rightreasons, and so the moment the Indian cricket team won the World Cup, he lookedaskance at the team. A closer look later, he may have wondered, "Where are myboys?" Surely, at least one of our boys must be there, could havebeen his overriding thought. Alas, whichever direction he looked in,there was no one from Karnataka, the same state which had provided the Indianteam with its captain in the last edition of the World Cup, and two stars whenthe Cup was first won in 1983.That was when the CM probably decidedhe would transcend the state's borders and announced the awarding of BDA sitesto the entire Indian team, as also its retiring South African coach, for whom aTuesday afternoon media conference was his last engagement on Indian soil.He needn't make any plans to return in a hurry to collect the papersfor his site though, for as it is, one recent world champion from Karnataka,cueist Pankaj Advani, is still awaiting the allotment of his site promised wayback in 2008.Actually, Gary Kirsten should be lured back on oneother pretext instead. For, the situation in Karnataka cricket is thatdesperate. Not just no representative in the ODI side, the situation is not allthat better in Tests either. The Indian Test side boasts only one regular player from Karnataka -- veteran Rahul Dravid, still holding the flag high. Pacer Abhimanyu Mithun is the only other player to have merited a look-in in recent times, with his senior partner and last season's Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar being looked upon more as a limited overs bowler. Vinaywas in the World Cup probables' list, but failed to make the final cut evenafter fellow medium pacer Praveen Kumar was ruled out, the selectors plumpingfor the mercurial S Sreesanth.The simple explanation for such adesperate state of affairs is that it is all a cycle, and that it will comearound again. Now, while that part cannot be denied, the fact of the matter isthat the process has to be quickened. There is a new administrationin place at the Karnataka State Cricket Association, with the who's who of notjust Karnataka cricket but Indian cricket, too, at the helm. They gained a clearmandate in the November 2010 elections and have a three-year term to beginwith.Already, in between conducting the India-New Zealand ODI within days of coming to office, and overseeing the World Cup games, which included the high-profile India-England game, M/s Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath have made telling changes to the set-up. There is a new selection committee in place, with former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who later played his part as the Indian bowling coach, taking over as chairman in a silent coup. A cricket committee too has been constituted, the body including Dravid, whose club, BUCC, is part of the managing committee.These guys have no magic wand for sure, butif the right intent is shown, the job will be half-done. And it's not aboutsetting the old house in order, they have new challenges to deal with too, andmost of them come with a possible clash of interest. A lot of them are closelyinvolved with local Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore,which is different from the previous dispensation that had only the KSCAsecretary involved as RCB CEO, a post he still holds.Already, thereis talk that one of the more promising players, Manish Pandey, is contemplatingmoving away totally from Karnataka cricket. Pandey, it may be recalled, moved toSahara Pune Warriors after some financial wrangling, which in fact led to hissuspension even for a few matches after RCB bosses insisted onit.Plenty of challenges, then, and a little less than three years inwhich to overcome them and put out a few players in the Indian team, come the2015 World Cup.