That there is something chameleonic about India’s relationship with cricket is an established truth. Time was when Eden Gardens would fill up to the rafters at 8.30 a.m. with all the sound effects deployed in the nationalist cause as the last few wickets of a visiting side remained to be taken. After 1983, of course, One-Day Internationals became God’s answer to the Indian’s prayer. He had begun liking it cut short: a thali lunch rather than an elaborate banquet, however tasty, even though hitting the top had induced a triumphalism. The Indian Premier League, with its razzle-dazzle and a-thrilla-minute excitement, currently represents the apotheosis of this country’s cricketing experience, with stultifying summers banished to the unsuspected recesses of the mind as television, the purr of the airconditioner and frequent top-ups of chosen beverages bringing about nirvana.

Twenty20, as they say, is now the flavour of the season. What England is now curious about suggests wheels within wheels. Will the Bazball game ~ the hyper-aggressive Twenty20 batting style advocated by national coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes ~ influence the four-day County Championship matches significantly enough to push the Test team’s “revolutionising” efforts farther? It is not a will-o’-the-wisp thought up by the media. Dennis Amiss happens to be one of those representing Hoary Antiquity who has said, in less formal words, that it would be just as well if Bazball came to be attempted on the county circuit in this new season. What underlies this initiative is the aim of gearing the annual tournament towards England’s international requirements in terms of unearthing players. Two rules have been tweaked, the first reducing from eight to five the points for a draw, thereby encouraging a win, and the second that calls for more runs than before for bonus points. A first batting bonus point is to be given when a team scores 250, 50 more than previously. A score of 450 or more in 110 overs will be rewarded with the maximum five points. McCallum probably wants a larger talent pool, given Bazball as of now centres on Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett and, of course, Joe Root. But county coaches are not sure that their teams can play the way England does. Nor are some others confident that red-ball cricket will never bring in those phases when a solid defence will be more important than fireworks every ball. The verbal give-and-take will continue, emphasising at each turn how Twenty20 is coming ~ or is being sought to be adapted – in diverse forms, sometimes, as in the County Championship experiment, even in the garb of convention. It, of course, does not imply a moral crime calling for the harshest punishment possible in the court of law but it does leave you wondering if England today or tomorrow would cast off someone who, playing like Geoffrey Boycott, does not mean to score off every delivery