Sehwag the bit player with a leading part

Virender Sehwag has only played two Test matches, but already the 23-year-old batsman has made an impact beyond the wildest dreams of even Sigmund Freud. A century on debut against South Africa will have made many take notice, but it is the one-match ban he received from the match referee, Mike Denness, that threatens to cement his role in history as the man who rent the cricket world apart, albeit down old fault lines.

Sehwag is not acting alone and his infamy is dependent on Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Board on Control for Cricket in India. Sometime today, Dalmiya and his acolytes will gather to decide whether to pick the youngster in the squad for the first Test against England, a match from which he is banned following the International Cricket Council's ruling that India's current Test match in South Africa is "unofficial".

According to the chairman of selectors, Chandu Borde, India's squad for the opening Test is to be picked tomorrow, the first day of England's final warm-up match against India A here. This means the BCCI's decision would not be confirmed until the names are announced on 29 December.

The absence or presence of the diminutive Sehwag would either calm or inflame the current situation, which is either a small row, or total anarchy, depending on whether you believe the ICC's claim that all but one member Board supports its action. Even then, no one will really know which way this game of bluff and bluster could go until each captain hands in his team half an hour before the start of the Test on 3 December.

Set to become an unfortunate pawn in the matter, Sehwag, who comes from the nondescript Najafgarh industrial area west of Delhi, was banned by Denness for two counts of excessive appealing and one of using foul and abusive language in the Second Test against South Africa.

A hard-hitting batsman, Sehwag is said to be a shy individual who only ever raises his voice when appealing, something Denness clearly felt he had done too often. Denness also handed down punishments to five other Indian players, but in the largely one-eyed reporting of the situation in India, the fact that he had already previously warned four of them seems to have been omitted.

Unless left out of the squad, Sehwag, along with England and ICC, will be kept on tenterhooks, a situation Dalmiya, a master tactician, will probably milk for all its worth. While many feel his long-term agenda is an Asia/Rest-of-World split, it is unlikely he would want to sabotage his own tour. In any case, several England players have stated, privately, that they would not want to play if the Tests became unofficial.

If Dalmiya was prepared to sacrifice his position in the current series, which may happen as the ICC is resolute over not backing down, he may be targeting India's series in England next summer in which to make his point. India's absence from the four-Test series as well as the triangular one-day series could cause financial meltdown for the England and Wales Cricket Board, should other Test teams not be found to fill the gap.

The BCCI meanwhile, would continue to bank its rising millions of dollars, raised on the back of TV deals eager to take advantage of the largest middle-class in the world? Or would it? TV has been Dalmiya's dynamo for generating cash, but surely it will cool, should the same few sides keep playing each other.

Astonishingly, the answer to this, as well as many other unpalatable outcomes for cricket's mainstream, could hinge on a stocky batsman, only just beginning his Test career. What is it about short men and their monopoly of history?