IAN CHAPPELL

The recent off-field action in Australian cricket has been fierce and frenzied. Three players lost to suspension, followed by the resignation of a coach, a CEO and a Board member, then the pace really quickened with the reluctant departure of the chairman and then close on his heels, another Board member in respected former player and captain Mark Taylor. To cap off the chaos, two executives were then sacked.

The greatest beneficiary of this off-field upheaval is the Indian touring party which now has their best ever chance of beating a rattled Australia at home in a Test series.

Not that India have avoided their own administrative chaos. First there was the Lodha committee recommendations to clean up the BCCI, then the Supreme Court intervention to hurry along that process. Then the Committee of Administrators (COA) were appointed to ensure compliance. More recently former captain-turnedadministrator Sourav Ganguly, shared his concerns when he expressed; “A deep sense of fear,” over the present state of affairs in Indian cricket.

However, where Australia’s off-field chaos was precipitated by on-field cheating in Cape Town, India’s administrative woes haven’t seeped through onto the field and caused a disruption to the playing group.

Not only has Australia lost the services of their two best bats-