PLAY AND POWER: Juniors at nets at a camp in Bangalore (above); national junior selectors V. Chamundeswaranath, Bhagirath Thakore and Ashok Bhagwat at a match in Vadodara

Once upon a time there was an ambitious young man who played cricket. He was a reasonable under-19 player but wanted more. So, at 25, he became the president of his state cricket association. It wasn't enough: in November 2000 he walked into the change room of his state cricket team, appointed himself captain and played a Ranji Trophy match. He scored zero and took two wickets, but the cricket didn't matter. That match had made him, son of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, a first-class cricketer.

It is a very important piece of fine print because the BCCI's rules allow only first-class cricketers to be made national selectors. The young man's name is Anurag Thakur and today he is a member of the national junior selection committee. The country's best under-19 talent is picked by, among others, a man who chose to strong-arm his way into a first-class team because he was their boss. Thakur is now manager of the India under-19 team as it readies to defend its World Cup title in New Zealand this week.

Even though it began with "once upon a time", this is not a fairy tale. It's a true-and unpleasant-story about the national junior programme which stays unnoticed because of the bright lights and high-profile concerns of the stars. In this foundry of Indian cricket, there is anarchy on the factory floor.

SELF-SELECTOR Himachal cricket chief Anurag Thakur made himself state team captain

The method used by Thakur to become a national selector is a symptom. From the very top of the pile, the BCCI and its selectors, down to the club coach and even pushy parents, junior cricket is pock-marked with greed, mismanagement and even corruption. When the juniors step onto the big stage they are not bursting with confidence and ambition, they are a mass of insecurity and confusion. Because this is the world they come from:

None of Thakur's colleagues on the junior selection panel is a former India player. Four out of six members of the national junior cricket committee are not first-class players. Thakur's modus operandi is obviously pioneering.

An under-16 player accused a Mumbai Cricket Association junior coach and office worker of demanding Rs 25,000 from him for a spot in an under-16 selection tournament, Rs 50,000 for a place on the Mumbai junior team and Rs 1 lakh for a West Zone place. The office worker was suspended but an inquiry is still on against the coach. A Mumbai-based 20-year-old told India Today that a cricket official had said he could be selected for the Baroda Ranji Trophy team for Rs 1 lakh. He has given up his ambitions of playing a higher level of cricket ever since.

SPORTS STARTING BLOCKS SULLIED SELECTION: Cricket officials often bow to the dictates of power and influence while picking junior teams. COACHING CONS: Clinics run by former players who are not trained coaches teach bad habits and bad attitudes. PUSHY PARENTS: Cricket is seen as a viable profession by ambitious parents.

A North Zone National Cricket Academy (NCA) coach sent his wards out to buy his daily dose of chewing tobacco. His accompaniment to slip-catching practice to the youngsters was a backward glance-for spitting.

The probables picked for the under-19 World Cup this year were refused permission to play practice games at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium in Chennai because of a BCCI faction-fight between the officials who run the ground and those in charge of the team's preparation.

Two members of an Indian under-15 team for the World Cup in July 2000 were declared overage by doctors for a national under-19 competition in October that year.

But hold on a moment. This must be a mistake: in the past six years, India have won the under-19 World Cup, the under-15 World Cup, and are under-15 and under-17 Asian champions. There are, on average, 322 official junior matches played in India every season across four age groups.

The national team should have a big hungry pack nipping at their ankles. The fact that it hasn't means something has got lost in the transition. By the time quality is strained through the agendas of coaches and the ego of officials, fragile talent has been lost. Robust survivors learn an altogether unsavoury game.

Former Hyderabad Cricket Association secretary P.R. Man Singh says, "Junior cricket is in a pathetic state because nobody pays attention to developing good traditions. The better youngsters are the ones who do not have the money to appease or please the corrupt selectors." The phrase "corrupt selectors" is not considered heresy any more and not just in junior cricket. There are those who allege that in the late 1990s no less than three players had to give senior selectors a cut of their match fees.

THE BOYS IN BLUE: India's under-19 team for the Junior World Cup has survived a system defined by its arbitrariness and corruption

Says former Bengal Ranji player Raju Mukherjee: "Selectors are normally called jokers and not without good reason. They can easily be bought over." Mukherjee, a Bengal under-16 coach in the 2000-1 season, walked out of a selection meeting when the panel picked a player who had scored three ducks and a 12 in four matches. After Mukherjee refused to field the boy, he was told not to accompany the team for their final league game, where the boy played. "There is nothing wrong with the boy but he hadn't performed," Mukherjee says. The traumatised teenager, who could hardly understand what was happening, came to Mukherjee's home and wept. Mukherjee has since been removed as Bengal under-16 coach and looks after the under-14s.

"There's not only a price for selection but also for being able to attend a trial. I know coaches who sell forms for attending trials in the black market," says one Delhi cricket official. "Only about 60 per cent of all state teams are selected on merit." An under-14 selector from Tamil Nadu presents another equation. "Of 16 guys, at least 12 are selected on merit," he says. "As for the rest, the association succumbs to pressure from influential people. But even meritorious guys think a godfather is necessary."

Man Singh remembers occasions when an under-14 side travelled with as many parents as players. The purpose: to keep the coach and selectors in good humour. Mumbai-based Dr Kinjal Suratwala, who works with Mumbai junior teams, says, "Parents look at cricket as a profession, and every parent believes that his child is destined to play for India. The youngsters who play now are more anxious." He has also noticed another more insidious trend. Young players arrive at representative level armed with something more lethal than a surprise bouncer. "Bad coaches teach not just bad technique but wrong attitudes. Kids of 15-16 know how to suppress a rival, how to manipulate. If you are captain you don't give enough overs to someone you consider a threat to yourself," says Suratwala. "Coaches must be role models, trained people. But 'mushroom coaching' found in big cities means anyone with access to a cricket pitch becomes a coach."

A junior selector from Tamil Nadu agrees, "There is no system of coaching, nor are there any set standards. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association is detached from the camps." It is estimated that there are more than 100 "clinics" in Delhi, with all and any stripe of "cricketer" running them. A respected Delhi coach says, "The problem is that the star players who run clinics think that mere se zyaada kisi ko nahi aata (no one knows more than I do). It's a mindset."

Former England fast bowler and coach Frank Tyson has worked with Mumbai and India juniors from the early 1990s. "At the moment there are too many coaches coaching wrong techniques which worked for them," he told India Today. "What do they do when the same techniques do not work on youngsters? They then have to unlearn bad habits before they can learn the correct way. India needs a National Coaching Accreditation Scheme." When the NCA invited applications for a coaching seminar last year, four "star" player-coaches from Delhi had to take the help of a less glamourous peer to help them fill in the preliminary test questionnaire. When a cricketer-coach or a secretary of a club doubles up as a selector, objectivity is history. Says India junior coach Balwinder Singh Sandhu: "Junior coaches want to win trophies and not to develop skills. That way they are known as coaches you must go to."

Of all the state associations, the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) sets the standard in maladministration and corruption. "There are all kinds of clout available in Delhi and people use anything," says a Delhi-based BCCI official. DDCA selections are pure farce. Twenty players are routinely named on squads to accommodate all kinds of sifarish (recommendations) and sent on tour. Goons threaten junior selectors and routinely, the best talent available to Delhi selectors is neglected and moves to other states. India under-19 player Mihir Diwakar's move to Bihar is only the latest example.

The issue of cheating on age has been addressed with a rule that requires every junior picked for representative cricket to undergo a mandatory age test through X-rays of the wrist and the jaw. BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya has turned his attention to junior cricket with a blur of hyperactivity. Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar is now the director of the Talent Resource Development Programme, and has been given the job of selecting five "talent spotters". There is now a move on to "coach the coaches" in order to have some kind of uniformity down the line for technical and physical training received by young cricketers.

But how does this earnest endeavour weigh up with the personnel who will finally judge who plays and who doesn't for an India junior team? NCA Director Brijesh Patel believes that the selection of the selectors is critical. "The BCCI needs to do a rethink on its policy of appointing selectors. They have to sort out the system because it's most important at the junior level." Patel also lists the order of priorities in junior cricket-coaching, selection, pitches, quality of umpires. Those conclusions do not require an advanced degree in lateral thinking; but given the political compulsions inside the BCCI they are very difficult to achieve. Because the cricket doesn't matter, of course. Thakur's elevation to the junior selection committee is directly linked to his ability to swing the four deciding votes that helped Dalmiya win a fractious election in Chennai last September. Only when the cricket begins to matter will there be the realisation that while many people and most things may have their price, there are still some jobs which cannot be gifted away. Until then, expect little joy and fewer miracles from Indian cricket.

-with Amarnath K. Menon and Arun Ram