The debate around domestic cricket

For quite some time, I have been arguing in favour of India's top cricketers playing domestic cricket so that the level of competition helps young players coming through the system to mature (refer my previous blog posts). Thanks to IPL and relentless tours after tours throughout the year, India's top cricketers don't go back to domestic cricket, unless they are coming out of injury or have been dropped.

IPL has become such a monolith that the BCCI had to face insult as players like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer chose to ignore its directives and skipped the Ranji Trophy. Of late there has been a trend wherein once players have established themselves in the Indian team, they do not go back to their domestic teams. This trend is of recent vintage, particularly post the star syndrome brought about by IPL. Ishan Kishan is a classic case. He wasn't in the top league except for the absurdly astronomical auction amount that propelled into the limelight. Thus he was able to get into the Indian team in all the three formats and had good success. But something must have gone into his head. What explains him complaining of mental fatigue midway through the recent Test tour to South Africa and returning home. And though he was categorically told to play Ranji Trophy by head coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, he chose to instead join Hardik Pandya in Baroda practicing for his IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.

Hardik Pandya is a classic example of a talented player gone to waste due to the star syndrome. In recent years he has played less and been injured often. He was appointed captain of the Indian T20 team with the BCCI leaving out Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for more than a year. Hardik's move from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians (MI) as captain raised quite a few eyebrows. After all Rohit Sharma had done very well as captain for MI barring the last two seasons. In fact the tremors of Hardik's anointment as MI captain resulted in a delayed announcement of the Indian T20 team for the three-match series against low-ranked Afghanistan. Rohit returned as captain of the T20 team and Virat too was brought back with Hardik and Surya out due to injury. With Jay Shah announcing that Rohit will lead the Indian team in the T20 World Cup, what happens to BCCI's planning for the future? The star syndrome seems to be plaguing the BCCI. After all IPL is a BCCI 'domestic' competition!

One good thing that seems to have come out after BCCI chose to deny both Ishan and Shreyas central contracts, is that the importance of domestic cricket has been driven through. But will the BCCI be able to ensure that all its top stars play for their home teams in domestic cricket? Apart from the star syndrome, scheduling of international commitments has to be looked into. One has to look at how Cricket Australia plan their away tours. November to January is the period when they play Tests at home, compulsorily. Their away tours to a country like India are planned for February-March as India's cricket season (October-March) coincides with Australia's. South Africa too stay at home in the same period and travel abroad like the Australians do. However, in the middle of their home season, India toured South Africa in December-January and come December 2024 they will be in Australia for a five-Test series. Like the Australians, the most power cricket board (BCCI) can negotiate a tour down under without impacting their players' availability during the domestic season. 

Once the players availability has been ensured during the domestic, the international commitments have to be so scheduled that the top stars are available to play for their home teams. England set a fine example. Their domestic season starts with the four-day County Championship in April and by the end of May each players has played seven County games. They schedule tours by visiting teams from June to September. Any player who is not playing for the English team compulsorily goes back to their County team if fit. In fact players are released from the Test squad after retaining two players - a twelfth man and a concussion substitute, and they go back to their county teams. Just like the IPL franchises and BCCI sign up contracts with their players, the BCCI should ensure that players sign contracts with their state associations.

Another important thing that needs to be done is the scheduling of IPL away from the peak summer months of April and May. IPL should instead be scheduled in September-October. The BCCI should analyze the real reason behind repeated injuries to its players. Any human body can only take the wear and tear for which it is designed. It cannot bear the heat wave of April-May when a player has to turn out under immense stress and pressure. The entire notion of workload management goes out the window during the IPL; it is applied to national duty instead. 

A good beginning has been made and by taking a strict view of players' indiscipline the BCCI has done that. It has to now look at issues highlighted above for sustained growth of the game.            

The Motivational Story of Sarfaraz Khan

The much-awaited, much-delayed debut of Sarfaraz Khan for the Indian Test team finally happened on 15th February 2024 at Rajkot in the third Test against England. For years, cricket aficionados have believed that Sarfaraz is the future of Indian Test cricket team. But a series of events, the most significant one a statement from a BCCI official who declared in June 2023 that Sarfaraz will never play for India, for reasons that seem to no longer exist, kept delaying the inevitable.

Sarfaraz Khan emerged as a player with great potential in 2013 when he was first picked for the India under-19 (U-19) team. He debuted for Mumbai in 2014 and played IPL in 2015. In an era when one has to get noticed more in the IPL than other 'domestic' tournaments, Sarfaraz failed to pass the litmus test as he never had a knock of significance or a regular run with the three different franchisees he turned out for. Even though he was one of the three players retained by RCB in IPL-2017, he reportedly did not fit into skipper Kohli's fitness benchmarks. There was no one of significance in Indian cricket who gave him his back despite the promise that he showed, and which on getting an opportunity he has ultimately fulfilled. Interestingly, the Wisden Cricket Almanac had mentioned his name as far back as 2012 along with his brother Musheer's (who has shown he is no lesser a player with two hundreds in the 2024 U-19 World Cup) as players to watch out for. Sarfaraz to his credit has seven half-centuries in the 2014 and 2016 U-19 World Cups. While the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Shubhman Gill were fast-tracked into the Indian team, Sarfaraz wasn't. But with two 60s in his debut Test, Sarafraz is finally there. That it took him almost a decade to make it to the senior level also shows an immense quality in him - patience.

Sarfaraz Khan had to leave Mumbai and join U.P. in the 2015-16 season. When he returned to Mumbai in 2018, he was made to wait due to the one year cooling off period rule. In 2019-20, after sitting out of the playing eleven for the initial games, he scored prolifically in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai. His immense form continued for the next two seasons as well. But the powers that be ensured he wasn't picked for India. After having been assured by the selection committee that he would be on the tour to Bangladesh in December 2022, only 15 players against the normal 16 were picked for the series. When Australia came to India for four-Test series in 2023, the selectors picked 17 players for a home series with Surya Kumar Yadav picked because he sweeps well. He played one Test and since then has done not much to prove even himself in ODIs.

In the past he has questioned the betrayal twice and when he went into a slump last year, the road seemed to have come to a dead end. But then he gave impressive performances against South Africa A and England Lions recently while playing for India A. He even got a breezy century in an intra-squad game in South Africa ahead of the Test series.

Players like Iyer and Ishan Kishan have got their chances in Tests due to their T20 and ODI form. Who would have noticed Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubhman Gill if they hadn't scored big in the IPL? 

A swallow doesn't make a summer. Sarfaraz Khan has just made his debut. There will be lesser opportunities once K L Rahul and Virat Kohli return to the Test team. Let us not forget how triple Test centurion Karun Nair was shunted out to make way for Rahane to return after injury. When Rahane lost his place in the team Hanuma Vihari came in as a substitute ahead of Nair who was in the original squad. Going forward, Sarfaraz holds the future of Indian cricket with other players like Yashasvi and Gill. 

For me, personally, the Test debut of Sarfaraz was a personal wish come true. Watching his father kiss Sarfaraz's Test cap with tears streaming down his eyes, made me cry. That is a real motivational story. Long way to go.  

Poat-script:

And now, interestingly, there is a buzz in the media that Sarfaraz Khan, who was released by Delhi Capitals ahead of the last IPL auctions in December 2023, could be picked by KKR for IPL 2024. The tail could finally wag the dog. It would be better that he signs up for an English County team to further hone his skills in tougher batting conditions than waste his time and energy in the energy-sapping heat of April-May in the IPL. Playing county games during that period would be more beneficial for him as well as India.

 

  

Gavaskar's advice to Rohit & Co - don't sit at home

Sunil Gavaskar, in a post-mortem of the short two-Test series played by India in South Africa, advised the Indian cricket team to play a few first-class practice games on an away tour. By refusing to do so on numerous tours in the last decade or so, the Indian cricket team has invariably lost the first Test and then has to play catch-up. 

I am reminded of India's Test tour to Australia in 1977-78, the first series that I followed as a 12-year old. The tour itinerary below gives a glimpse into the number of first-class games that India played before and in between the Tests.

India in Australia, 1977/78

• South Australia v Indians at Adelaide, 4-6 Nov 1977
• Victoria v Indians at Melbourne, 11-14 Nov 1977
• New South Wales v Indians at Sydney, 18-21 Nov 1977
• Queensland v Indians at Brisbane, 25-27 Nov 1977
• 1st Test: Australia v India at Brisbane, 2-6 Dec 1977
• Western Australia v Indians at Perth, 9-12 Dec 1977
• 2nd Test: Australia v India at Perth, 16-21 Dec 1977
• Tasmania v Indians at Launceston, 23 Dec 1977
• Tasmania v Indians at Hobart, 24-27 Dec 1977
• 3rd Test: Australia v India at Melbourne, 30 Dec 1977-4 Jan 1978
• 4th Test: Australia v India at Sydney, 7-12 Jan 1978
• Northern New South Wales v Indians at Newcastle, 14-16 Jan 1978
• 5th Test: Australia v India at Adelaide, 28 Jan-3 Feb 1978

There were as many as four games before the first Test. The first Test at Brisbane was preceded by a four-day match against the local state team Queensland in the same city (Brisbane). Similarly, when the teams travelled to Perth for the second Test, the Indians played a four-day game against the state team (Western Australia) in the same city (Perth). Even the fifth and final Test was preceded by a three-day game against Northern New South Wales, which isn't exactly a state team.

The idea behind these matches was for players from overseas getting fully acclimatized to local weather as well as pitches. The hosts would look to expose their best first-class players to international competition in return. 

But gradually this trend has receded in the background. More and more teams prefer not to play first-class practice games overseas and simply launch themselves into international matches. With the plethora of bilateral white-ball series preceding a Test series, the preparation at best is out of sync. Jaiswal, Iyer, Prasidh and Gill realized this when they played T20Is/ODIs prior to the Tests in South Africa recently. The intra-squad game wasn't much of a contest, as Gavaskar has observed. Virat Kohli abstained from the game while runs scored by the likes of Gill and Jaiswal didn't help them face up to the South African quicks in back-to-back Tests. One can argue that despite not playing the intra-squad game, Kohli was India's best batsman. But then he is in a different class altogether, but his overall tally in the four innings is nowhere near his average. 

The entire tour of 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 2 Tests lasted less than four weeks. Compare this with India's itinerary in 1977-78 above when five Tests and first-class games were played over a three-month period.  

With the increase in the number of formats, and the white-ball ones getting precedence, the schedules of teams are packed. Hence there isn't much time before a series to play first-class games. But if Test cricket has to survive and a team like India has to make its mark overseas, then enough space has to be made for such games. 

The reluctance of teams to playing practice games overseas is often attributed to quality of pitches and opposition being not up to the mark. Fine. But by just feeling the conditions, players could do better than 'sitting at home', as has been advised by Gavaskar. The root cause lies elsewhere though. When was the last time Kohli and Rohit played a first-class game at home? The last first-class domestic matches played by Virat Kohli (Ranji Trophy, 2-5 November 2012, Delhi vs UP) and Rohit Sharma (Duleep Trophy, 10-14 September 2016, India Blue vs India Red) explains the trouble the Indian Test team is in.  But it does highlight the fact that playing domestic cricket (except for IPL which is listed as a domestic tournament by the BCCI) is not on the agenda of established players. The BCCI goes by what the senior cricketers want. Very few Test players turn out for their state or zonal teams in domestic first-class cricket but only when they are returning from injury or are out of the team. The moment a player establishes himself in the team he starts avoiding first-class cricket, as Kohli and Rohit have done. Injury is also on their mind and hence they do not want to take a risk by playing first-class matches.

But can things change? Gavaskar has advised the Indian Test team to play at least a couple of first-class games in Australia before the Test series later this year by taking the ACB into confidence so that quality pitches and teams are made available. But will it really happen? The BCCI will schedule some odd white-ball series at home before the Test series, the Indian players will arrive in Australia ten days ahead and have net practice. By the time they play the first Test they would be feeling to get a grip on the conditions. And then there shall be a catch-up reaction. Well India might have won the last two Test series in Australia but there has to be a method not madness in their approach if India has to do well in Tests abroad.