Govt must batten down on expenditure, play long innings to fix economy

NRI and foreign economists should be ignored as completely as commentators are ignored by top class batsmen, writes TCA Srinivasa Raghavan.

What is the similarity between batting in cricket and economic policy? For success, both depend on making the correct choices on a continuing basis. 

Thus, there are two contributors to success in batting. Depending on the bowled ball, the field, the pitch, the atmosphere etc, the batsmen must first select the right shot to play and, second, they must keep doing it consistently till they make a mistake. This is exactly true of economic policy also. 

The problem, for both batsmen and governments, is that they don’t know they have made a mistake till it’s too late. This is what