Continuing from my previous blogpost Mindless Scheduling Hurting Indian Cricket, it would be appropriate to offer a way out of the deep crisis that Indian cricket is passing through, in spite of all the moolah and star power. The 3-0 win over New Zealand in the T20I series soon after the debacle India suffered in the ICC T20 World Cup should not be taken to pat ones back, because by now the mindless scheduling has taken a little toll on New Zealand for instance. Within a day of losing a keenly contested ICC T20 World Cup Finals on 14th November 2021, the Kiwis landed in Jaipur, and lost to India, without Kohli, Bumrah and Shami, in all the three T20 Internationals (T20Is). Players like Rohit, Rahul and Pant were forced to go through the grind irrespective of the fact that they shall be part of the Indian Test team that will swiftly switch gears from the shortest format (T20) to the longest (Tests). Both New Zealand and India will switch to a five-day Test series of two Test matches with players from neither team having played long-form cricket in the run-up to the series.
And there lies the fundamental problem with Indian cricket. The 2021-22 domestic season has begun with the T20s - Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy so as to provide IPL franchisees a dekko into the available talent pool ahead of player auctions. None of India's Test specialists has had any chance to play a three-day or a four-day first class game ahead of two Tests at home against New Zealand. The stand-in skipper for the first Test against New Zealand, Ajinkya Rahane had played only in the T20s at the domestic level. With the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy stretching up to 22nd November 2021, all Test specialists played no first-class matches before the Test series (of a mere two matches) starting on 25th November 2021. Cheteshwar Pujara for example, last played any game in England in August 2021 (the fourth Test of the India-England series) since he does not play T20 for even Saurashtra. Earlier in 2021, as he was contracted to play for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, he did not get an opportunity to play in the English County Championship ahead of India's tour to England. So it was a blessing in disguise for Indian cricket that none of the IPL franchisees picked him and he played six county championship games for Sussex in April-May 2022, hit four daddy hundreds including two double centuries, forcing the selectors to pick him for the lone Test match in England in July 2022. The only member of the Indian Test squad playing county cricket in 2021 was Hanuma Vihari. As the Indian cricketers were playing no cricket in the six-week gap between the World Test Championship Finals in June 2021 and the five Test series against England in England, the BCCI hurriedly organised an inter-squad game and another game against a ragtag Select County XI (which even had Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan to make up the numbers). R Ashwin was the only player to have played a first class game in the intervening period as he appeared for Surrey in the English County Championship. But he did not get picked in any of the four Tests, which was an inexplicable mystery.
Take a look at the way England and Australia organize their cricket, including for the women.
The domestic season, the famed English County Championship begins in April every year with any player contracted by the counties wishing to be considered for national selection mandated to play for their home team. It is not until June, and in rare cases in late May, do international fixtures begin. So after 6 to 8 weeks of long-form cricket, the Test specialists play together against visiting teams. The first leg of the English County Championship 2022 ran from April 7 to May 22, with Test players primed for the upcoming Test series against New Zealand in June2022. The same discipline is followed in Australia with six state teams playing in the Sheffield Shield competition that begins in October, with Tests against visiting teams starting not later than the end of November. So once again the Test specialists have had enough practice at the first-class level before the international fixtures begin.
Owing to international commitments, even if England and Australia are playing in ICC events, like the recent ICC T20 World Cup that stretched up to mid-November, it is mandatory for international stars to play for their county/state teams before they can be considered for the national teams. Contrast it with the star system in India. Virat Kohli, for instance, last played for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy in 2013, shortly after cementing his place in the Indian Test team. To be fair to him, he has been on the grind since his debut for India in 2008 in the one-day internationals (ODIs), in 2010 in T20Is and in 2011 in Tests. With the advent of IPL in 2008, and the ICC calendar to follow the BCCI has mindlessly scheduled international matches at home and abroad resulting in leading players like Kohli virtually on the road.
England do not travel during their domestic season (April to September). Australia too travel only in October, when their domestic season starts or March, when it is about to end. Even in the face of the pandemic, they had a reduced stretch of their respective first-class competitions. And in 2022 the domestic calendar in both England and Australia is back to normal. On the contrary the BCCI scrapped its most prestigious first-class competition - the Ranji Trophy in 2020-21; conducting only the 20-over Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (ahead of the IPL 2021 auctions) and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. And thanks to the scheduling of international and domestic fixtures, India's Test specialists played at least two Tests at home against the Kiwis and three abroad against the Springboks without having played a first-class game! The Ranji Trophy 2021-22 has been a joke. At the league stage teams played 3 games only. And after the end of IPL, the knockouts will be played in June, with daily threat of rains playing spoilsport.
Indian cricket is being steered by three gentlemen of the golden era - Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. If they cannot set things in order, none can. Each one of them has not only been part of the system in recent times, having seen the advent of T20 cricket and what it demands of the players, but have also had their issues with the BCCI administration. Now, as they are part of the establishment, the troika can set things in order by going back to the basics. There are far too many teams in domestic cricket - 38 to be precise. The Lodha Committee recommendations have all been thrown to the winds. For example, Justice Lodha had proposed merging of all teams in a state to have one team per state and abolishing institutional teams like Services and Railways. But that was not to be. Mumbai, Vidarbha and Maharashtra continue to survive though as per the Lodha Committee recommendations they should have merged into one team - Maharashtra. Similarly we have three teams representing Gujarat - Baroda, Saurashtra and Gujarat. Instead smaller states in the north-east and Chandigarh too have teams playing domestic cricket. The zonal Duleep Trophy has been scrapped, after first being reduced to a three-team event. If we look at Australian cricket, they still have six state teams at the domestic level. With the packed schedule that Indian cricketers have to go through, at least the Duleep Trophy should be brought back so that the Test specialists compete against each other and prepare well for Tests. We have IPL as an excellent example of young hopefuls rubbing shoulders with the established national as well as internationals stars and emerging better. Since players like Kohli, Rahane, Pujara and Bumrah cannot play Ranji matches, pitting them against each other in a competition like the Duleep Trophy would throw up excellent Test prospects. Scrapping the zonal system was one of the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. So for convenience, while the Duleep Trophy and the List-A Deodhar Trophy have been scrapped, the five zonal selectors survive, against the three proposed by Justice Lodha for the national selection committees at all levels.
The sanctity of the domestic season should be protected. Every year the home season has to begin in October, followed by any international fixtures at home starting no earlier than November, If India has to travel to South Africa, New Zealand or Australia, where cricket is played around the same time as in India, they should do so either in October or March so that our international cricketers are available to play domestic cricket at home. This will not only provide an opportunity to Test hopefuls to compete against the best but also provide the latter valuable match-practice at home. The Ranji Trophy being scheduled as an after-thought in the available slots after IPL, Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) Trophy and Vijy Hazare (50 over) Trophy is of no use to players or the BCCI to keep the bench warm. Barring Shreyas Iyer, India does not have any player in the pipeline to replace Pujara, Rahane, Rohit or Kohli in the years to come. Both Gill and Prithvi Shaw have flattered to deceive as they struggle across formats. We cannot rely on the shortest format (T20) to blood in Test players. India's Test series win in Australia last season was attributed to fearlessness that T20 cricket has instilled in players due to the intense competition that they face in the IPL. But none of the stars of the tour - Washington Sundar, T Natarajan or Shardul Thakur look like cementing their places in the Indian Test team.
