PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) _ Indian cricket is heading for a tumultuous period after its unexpected first-round exit at the World Cup.
Finalist at the last World Cup in 2003, India was tipped to be among the front-runners for a semifinal berth.
But skipper Rahul Dravid's team lost to Bangladesh in its opening match _ only its second limited-overs loss ever to its subcontinental neighbour _ and was knocked out by 1996 champion Sri Lanka.
The humiliating elimination is bound to have repercussions on a squad that went into the World Cup boasting three of the six batsmen to have scored more than 10,000 runs in limited-overs internationals.
The vaunted batting order misfired against disciplined attacks, prompting widespread anger among its millions of fans.
It would be a major shock if coach Greg Chappell and Dravid emerged unscathed from the World Cup debacle.
World Cup defeats have not always resulted in Indian captains losing their jobs, although Kapil Dev in 1987 and Mohammed Azharuddin in 1999 were fired after the premier limited-overs tournament.
Dev led India to its biggest limited-overs triumph by winning the World Cup in 1983 with an upset over the two-champion West Indies in the final, his team surprising even its most staunch supporters.
But four years later a semifinal loss to England proved to be his last match as captain.
Azharuddin survived India's disastrous performance in 1991-92 World Cup when the team failed to make the semifinals. He went on to lead India in the next two World Cup tournaments, although the team squandered a winning position in the 1996 semifinals against Sri Lanka _ which went on to clinch the title.
It was another failure in making the semifinals in 1999 that ended Azharuddin's tenure.
Indian cricket circles are rife with speculation about the likely successor to Dravid, but there is no overwhelming choice as a replacement. The two candidates tipped to take over the mantle are both former captains: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
Nobody comes close Tendulkar's record for most World Cup runs.
But then Tendulkar had a disastrous tournament, his goal of featuring in a World Cup-winning side shattered after a third-ball duck against Sri Lanka in the must-win game that India lost by 69 runs.
Ganguly led India to the final in 2003, but was left out of the one-day team for 1{ years until the new selection panel decided to recall him to stem the rot during India's tour of South Africa.
Dravid's squad was touted to have loads of experience that was to act as a buffer in crunch situations, but the team turned out to be short on youthful exuberance that some of its first-round rivals thrived upon. Big names and past records could not spark an Indian revival after the shock five-wicket defeat to Bangladesh.
India's performance was its worst in the World Cup since 1979 when India finished at the bottom of the four-nation group from which two teams advanced to the semifinals.
In a changed format, the organizers added a preliminary round from which eight teams will advance to the Super 8s that is equivalent to the quarterfinals.
Dravid says his team is devastated by the result, but acknowledges that ``the team did not deserve to advance to the Super 8s.''
``We weren't up to scratch,'' he said.
The cricket team from India, with a population exceeding one billion, has the biggest fan following in the world.
Indian players are adored by millions and they are among the most highly paid cricketers in the world. Yet the players also face flak when they fail to live up the expectations of fans _ whose dejection occasionally tends to erupt into violence.
The loss to Bangladesh evoked an angry reaction back home, where fans held mock cremations using posters of the players and also hurled stones at the houses of some cricketers.
India's poor performance is expected to have a bearing on Chappell's continuation as coach, and the former Australian captain fully realizes that.
``I will face my employers, the Indian cricket board and discuss the subject with them,'' he said. ``I think there's a need for a serious introspection in Indian cricket.
``India hasn't won a major series abroad since 1985 and there's got to be a reason for it.''
There may not be many people in India prepared to discuss this any longer with Chappell, who took over in 2005.
Chappell's performance as India's coach has always been compared with that of his predecessor, former New Zealand captain John Wright _ the first foreigner to be appointed the Indian national team's coach. Under Wright's guidance, India reached the final four years ago before losing by 125 runs to Australia.
