Cricket World Cup: Creaking India Collapse and Prepare to Head for Home

That the cricketing world is a poorer place has been tragically evident since the death of Bob Woolmer turned into a murder inquiry. Today it is poorer materially as well as virtuously after India, the economic powerhouse of the game, crashed out of the tournament at the qualifying stage with a crushing defeat by 69 runs against Sri Lanka.

There will be ramifications: the departure of the Australian, Greg Chappell, as coach, the resignation as captain of Rahul Dravid, who does not enjoy the job anyway. It could not be otherwise after defeats first to Bangladesh and yesterday to Sri Lanka, a defeat that included the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar for a duck, an appropriate symbol of the impending break-up of an ageing Indian team.

Sri Lanka's total of 254 was a challenging one, and India, consumed by the expectations of a nation, flunked it. Tendulkar pushed uncertainly at his third ball and was bowled by Dilhara Fernando off an inside edge. Sourav Ganguly, the batsman whom Chappell had sought to jettison only to spark a rebellion that reached the Indian parliament, swung tamely to deep mid-on in a manner that rather proved Chappell's point.

Virender Sehwag, reprieved on 39 when Kumar Sangakkara could not hold a fast edge way to his right, failed to benefit and poked at Muttiah Muralitharan's doosra nine runs later. Yuvraj Singh ran himself out attempting a ridiculous single to short fine leg. Mahendra Dhoni also made nought, lbw to a routine Murali off-spinner, the one that turns miles.

Dravid - "the wall" - remained, but by the time he holed out at long-off for 60, Murali holding a dancing catch of celebration, he was a wall on which the Indian nation already ached to daub graffiti of condemnation.

This was not merely a game but a commercial entity. The financial fallout from India's failure to qualify for the Super Eights will be immense. Illegal bookmakers will be puce with rage, Mumbai will buy fewer flat-screen televisions and cricket grounds will be full of tumbleweed. The temptation is to rail at a tournament that has turned sour and to spit: "Who cares?"

It is also tempting to explore the parallel between the death of Woolmer, a caring coach caught up in the maelstrom of Pakistani cricket, and the burdens that today face Chappell. Both have been Western coaches who dared to test themselves amid the fervour of Asian cricket, both were due to end their tenure after the World Cup, both have had their effigies burned in the street.

For all that, their methodology was different. Woolmer preferred to build relationships and leave the discipline to others; Chappell has been depicted as aloof and inflexible, a coach fond of managerial phrases that leave Indian players cold. His Indian critics rail at the notion that he is a put-upon Westerner trying to bring order from political chaos and instead accuse him of a failure of man-management.

Tom Moody, another Australian, along with his benevolent captain Mahela Jayawardene, has restored purpose to Sri Lankan cricket. He experiences only junior-school politicking by comparison, but then Sri Lanka has always been known as "India lite". Sri Lanka's World Cup success - or lack of it - would have limited financial ramifications. Dilmah might cancel a celebratory tea-tasting but that would be about it. In Colombo, unlike Mumbai, the talk is normally not of advertising spend but whether anyone wants to pop down to the south coast for the weekend.

Sri Lanka batted as if they knew it. History suggested they had lost a bad toss - eight of the past nine matches in Port of Spain had been won by the side batting second - but they set their sights on 250 early on and made it in the final over.

Nothing lifts the spirits more in such desperate times than the memory of a young player gaining simple pleasure from one of his first tastes of cricketing success. India's cricket commercialism was shaken to the core because last week a carefree 17-year-old Bangladeshi, Tamim Iqbal, smacked the bowlers to all parts. Yesterday, Sri Lanka also looked to their younger batsmen. Where their seasoned batsmen failed, they prospered through Upul Tharanga's security and Chamara Silva's mid-innings spark.

It all means that Bangladesh and Ireland are in the Super Eights and India and Pakistan are not. The crooks and charlatans on the fringes of the game will be appalled. But Woolmer, were he still alive, would have recognised the essential romance of it, the reminder that financial resources can still occasionally count for nothing when matched against the beating of a human heart.