MUMBAI, Sept 30: If the heat, dust and spinning wickets do not get to world champions Australia, the shock of watching first-hand the mess that is Indian cricket surely will.

The tourists have seen intrigue, injury, power-play, court battles and total confusion reign in the rival camp in the six days they have been here for the highly-anticipated Test series.

The national team is in poor form, star player Sachin Tendulkar is injured and officials are fighting each other in the few spare moments they have from a messy court battle over multi-million dollar television rights.

With six days left before the first Test in Bangalore on Oct 6, there is no guarantee the series will be telecast live - or even if it will be played at all. "Indian cricket is in a mess with no solution in sight," said Raj Singh Dungarpur, a well-known administrator and former chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The cash-rich cricket board is divided down the middle following Wednesday's acrimonious presidential elections which saw outgoing chief Jagmohan Dalmiya's candidate, Ranbir Singh, edge out heavyweight politician Sharad Pawar by one vote.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar is also battling to recover from an elbow injury which has kept him out of action since Aug 1. The premier batsman has said there has been a "tremendous improvement" in his condition but added he would leave it to doctors to determine when he can play.

For a man who has not batted even in the nets for almost two months, it is unlikely Tendulkar will be available for the first Test or even the second which follows in Madras soon after.

The injury is a blow to the Indians who have fallen short of peak batting form this season, struggling in four successive one-day tournaments in the last two months. The Indians' form is so bad that the likely Test batting line-up of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Venkatsai Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh crashed for 213 in a trial match against India A currently being played in Bangalore. The Australians could not have hoped for a better opportunity to win their first series in India since 1969. -AFP