MARCH 23, 2007 was perhaps the most depressing day in Indian cricket history. As Sri Lanka romped to a 69-run victory that booked India’s early passage home from the World Cup in the Caribbean, an era seemed to be over. The team that had reached the previous World Cup final and gone toe-to-toe with Australia in Test matches in the new millennium looked jaded, bereft of ideas and out of sync with the demands of the modern game. Within a few months, though, the same nucleus of players had won a Test series in England and followed it up with a thrilling triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. In that time, the leadership also changed hands, with Rahul Dravid resigning and Mahendra Singh Dhoni taking charge. Anil Kumble was asked to shepherd the Test team but it was understood that Dhoni would take over when the time was right.

The man from the coal-mining town of Ranchi, not even a blot on the cricket landscape a decade ago, took to captaincy with the same enthusiasm with which he savaged bowlers in the one-day game. A one-day series was won in Australia, another in Sri Lanka and, in his three Test matches in charge, he managed victories by eight wickets (against South Africa in Kanpur), 320 runs (Australia in Mohali) and 172 runs (Nagpur in the same series).

As India surged into a 5-0 lead in the one-day series against England, there finally seemed to be a team capable of living up to the board’s boasts about dominating the world game. A couple of titans, Kumble and Sourav Ganguly, were gone, but with exciting youngsters such as Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel blending effortlessly with experienced hands Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, the sky-blue shirts could dare to dream.

Those dreams were shattered by the fusillade of bullets and hand-grenade explosions that struck at the heart of India’s new prosperity last week. Apart from being home to touring teams for decades, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is an iconic part of Mumbai’s landscape, as is the Oberoi Trident on Marine Drive. When the attacks took place, a dozen people associated with the Champions League Twenty20 were staying at the Taj and two at the Oberoi. South Africa security personnel staying at the Taj in preparation for the competition helped some guests to escape.

The event, announced amid such fanfare a few months ago with TV rights sold for $975m, has become the first cricketing victim of terror. Lalit Modi, who heads the enterprise just as he did the Indian Premier League, put a brave face on things when he announced plans to stage it early in the new year. But with South Africa and Australia contesting home-and-away series between December and March, a window of opportunity will be difficult to find.

India are scheduled to tour Pakistan in January for three Tests and five one-day games. With diplomatic circles insinuating Pakistani involvement in these terror attacks, that series looks in danger now. If the tour is cancelled, the Indian board will do everything in its power to shoehorn the Champions League into the itinerary. It will be helped by two factors. First, only eight days are needed to stage the event. Second, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa – partners in the enterprise – also face severe financial losses if it doesn’t go ahead.

Without Modi, there certainly wouldn’t have been an IPL franchise in Jaipur (the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals). The other Indian team that were to take part in the tournament, the Chennai Super Kings, also have connections to the corridors of power. N Srinivasan, the board secretary, is also managing director of Indian Cements, which owns the franchise.

The possibility of financial losses is hardly India’s only concern, though. The BCCI is now the prime mover of world cricket. If these attacks keep teams away from India, it could severely weaken their grip.

More importantly, if England’s players do decide not to return for the two-match Test series, it halts the irresistible momentum that India have built up. After a poor outing in Sri Lanka, they have hammered Australia in a Test series and made England look second-rate in the one-day arena. A full stop or even a pause now is the last thing this Indian team need as they seek to become cricket’s answer to Chelsea - masters of the bank vault and leading contenders on the field.