If the Indian cricket Board and its recently rebellious players can bring themselves to look back on their two-month-long stand-off over the International Cricket Council's (ICC) contracts, they will be in for a surprise. The bunglings and seething resentment aside, the temporary resolution of the contracts issue proves once again that in world cricket, India counts. When the possibility of an Indian B team being sent to the ongoing Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka became very real, the ICC set up an international teleconference and an issue that had dragged on for two months was settled in a couple of hours. The Indian board and its widely supported team should pick up a few clues from this fracas. Together, they could be a bargaining force in world cricket that cannot be trifled with or taken for granted or shackled by unfair commercial terms. But as is clearly evident from history, precedent and the contracts issue, Indian cricket is anything but united or harmonious. Relations between the BCCI and its cricketers are based on the principle that drives all of Indian sport-feudalism. Dissent or debate on any issue concerning cricketers' earnings are treated as dangerous leanings towards trade unionism, and a players' association regarded with greater suspicion than the presence of bookies at cricket grounds.

It will be interesting to keep a close watch on what happens to the 18 players who did not sign the ICC contracts over the next few months. Not one of them-neither the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly nor the mighty Sachin Tendulkar-spoke openly during the stand-off. To do that would have meant inviting the wrath of the board. Long-serving officials have always made a mental note of perceived slights against them and planned paybacks. For younger, fringe cricketers that could mean being dropped from the team, for the older ones perhaps an unpleasant decision-the refusal of a benefit match, the holding back of the benevolent fund upon retirement, the denial of a coaching job-some years down the line. Indian cricket is ridden with mistrust and mismanagement. A healthier, more open and equitable relationship between the administrators and the players is the only way ahead; a stronger, more aware administration will lead to a better-prepared, more competitive team and that in turn to more popularity and more profits. The forces of free market now demand democracy in Indian cricket.