As ever, the Irani Cup, the country's premier cricket event pitting the Ranji Trophy champions - Mumbai this year - against the Rest of India, starts in Chandigarh on Wednesday in the backdrop of controversy on the eve of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's elections.

It was destined to be that way since the two events were fixed to usher in the country's cricketing season. Only this time, the election of the head of the richest sporting body in the country is a heady concoction, with the Nationalist Congress Party supremo and Mumbai Cricket Association chief Sharad Pawar reportedly throwing his hat in the ring even as the incumbent, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has been appointed the patron-in-chief.

Add the telecast rights issue to that mix, and the brew is complete!

It is a cruel irony that the flagship event of Indian cricket, showcasing the best talent in the country, will not be on television in the BCCI's Platinum Jubilee year because the Board messed up the television rights bidding process.

The situation is in complete contrast to what it was last year when the Board, for the first time, roped in sponsors for the Cup and the field included batting ace Sachin Tendulkar. This time, however, there will be neither Tendulkar, live telecast or sponsorship.

Yet, despite all the negativism, the flannelled fools have much to play for. There is the graded payment offering manifold increase in wages that could come their way with the contracts to be signed once the senior players return from England.

And, if nothing else, there are places in the Indian team that are up for grabs following the Champions Trophy debacle.

The Mumbai players are also slated to play Australia in the visitors' three-day warm-up match at Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium.

Dinesh Mongia, who will lead the Rest of India, returns at the helm after his historic Duleep Trophy triumph when he led North Zone to victory over East in March earlier this year. Mongia comes in to the match with loads of confidence following a successful outing in the English county.

He scored 470 runs, including two centuries for an average of 67.14 from six matches in Division One, besides 241 runs at 48.20 in the National League for Lancashire.

The Lancs were so impressed with the Punjab left-hander that he was asked to stay on till the end of the season despite the return of West Indian Carl Hooper for whom he was a replacement originally.

Motivation should be high for Zaheer Khan, too, although for entirely different reasons. The Baroda paceman has become a live specimen of anatomy for the high school biology student, with injury threatening to derail his career.

The left-arm seamer has been termed 'mentally lazy' in the media by Bruce Reid but he has the backing of his captain.

That Ganguly publicly called him India's best fast bowler. That the team wants back him fit and strong should egg Zaheer on.

Aakash Chopra and Parthiv Patel find themselves in similar situations. After being part of the teams that beat Australia and Pakistan in their own soil, the two find themselves in a precarious situation. Whether their services will be sought after when India take on the world champions or thrown back into domestic cricket remains to be seen.

Gautam Gambhir, Sridharan Sriram, Sairaj Bahutule, Shib Shankar Paul and numerous others who have records in domestic to back their claims and performances on the 'A' tours to match have another opportunity to impress the selection committee, which is also likely to undergo significant changes following the completion of tenure of the present members.

Teams (from):

Mumbai: Sairaj Bahutule (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Vinayak Mane, Vinod Kambli, Amol Muzumdar, Bhavin Thakkar, Vinayak Samant (wk), Ramesh Powar, Robin Morris, Avishkar Salvi, Munaf

Patel, Vineet Indulkar, Nilesh Kulkarni, Swapnil Hazare, Rohit Sharma.

Rest of India: Dinesh Mongia (capt), Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, Sridharan Sriram, Ambati Rayudu, Parthiv Patel (wk), Murali Kartik, Shiv Shankar Paul, Zaheer Khan, Yogesh Golwalkar, Venugopal Rao, Joginder Sharma, Siddharth Trivedi.