Mohammad Azharuddin is a legend who currently walks through the alleys of infamy.

But even as he fights the Board of Cricket in India's life ban for his alleged role in matchfixing -- a charge never proved, just hinted at -- Azhar plans to branch out into doing different things.

The Azhar-Sangeeta (aka his wife Sangeeta Bijlani) Management Services wants to launch a chain of gymnasiums, an appropriate enterprise for an athlete who could still don whites for India at 40. The idea of a cricket academy is also starting to hatch.

"The land for the cricket academy has not yet been alloted by the government. It will be a professional academy, one with several coaches," the former Indian skipper told rediff.com recently.

"I want to produce players, not just have an academy for name's sake. I want to produce players who will go and play for the state and the country."

The academy will be based in Hyderabad. Azhar wants to give something back to the city which has given him so much.

Talk to him about cricket and he instantly tells you he has not been watching all the matches; his work does not allow him that liberty. But, yes, he keeps abreast with the sport.

"The young Indian team is good. It can be better. I do not wish to single out any individual."

Prod him a little and he gets expansive.

"I think Yuvraj is a good stroke player."

But it is Mohammad Kaif, who has impressed him more. A wonderful fielder and a batsman who likes to take quick singles, Kaif reminds one of Azhar in his prime.

"He has grown," he says about Kaif, "become more mature. But he has to keep scoring runs."

"I am going to franchise my gym all over India," he says, reverting to himself. "I have been getting offers from a lot of different cities and things are looking bright."

There could be light at the end of the tunnel. His buddy Ajay Jadeja's five-year BCCI ban has been overturned by the Delhi high court and he can look forward to playing cricket again.

Ask Azhar whether he hopes to play cricket again, and he replies in that drawl made famous in post-match interviews: "One always lives in hope. My motto has always been: Stay positive. We will have to wait and see what happens."

"They [the Central Bureau of Investigation] asked and they answered," he had said in an earlier interview to rediff.com

Hope keeps people alive; it keeps them going, even when the odds are totally against them.

Last fortnight, outgoing International Cricket Council president Malcolm Gray spoke about racism in sport.

"Right from the player level to the decision-making level, racism exists," he said. "Just the way racism exists in all societies and in every sport."

The fact that racism exists is highlighted in the match-fixing scandal, where Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Waugh and Shane Warne all played cricket even after being pronounced guilty in the affair.

None of the Indians mentioned in the CBI report came close to the cricket ground again.

Photograph: Jewella C Miranda