World Cup Experience at the Eden Gardens

The Eden Gardens, one of India's most iconic cricket stadiums was always an aspirational venue. Ever since I have come to Kolkata last year, there were opportunities to visit the venue during the IPL or domestic first-class matches. IPL was a strict no-no, given the hot and humid weather in April-May, that too in a perennially humid Kolkata. How players survive in this weather is no mystery though given the big bucks involved.

The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 provided an excellent opportunity to watch at least one match at the venue. But some fraud deprived me of any ticket when the so-called official (ICC aka BCCI) portal opened in early September. None of the matches at the Eden Gardens weren't showing SOLD OUT within ten minutes of the opening of the ticket portal. What followed was a hue and cry, which became evident as the opening match of the World Cup was played in a virtually empty stadium. So the powers that they were forced to open the portal for tickets again.

My first choice was the India-South Africa game on November 5, but it was SOLD OUT! So I settled for the England-Pakistan clash on 11th November. 

The atmosphere at the stadium was electric. Loud music a la the IPL tamasha kept blaring. DIL DIL PAKISTAN was played umpteen times. The crowd support for Pakistan was tremendous. However the knowledgeable audience at the stadium applauded every good shot, ball or fielding. Defending champions England prevailed in a thoroughly professional performance, surprisingly pretty late in the tournament. Pakistan, for me and the highly supportive crowd, let the cricket-lovers down, badly. 

The facilities at the stadium were pretty good, with one janitor continuously wiping the toilet floor clean. The seats were a pain in the ass, literally, more so as they were exorbitantly priced at Rs 2000! 

Cricket is a religion in India and the frenzy is at its peak. The final later today promises to be a humdinger. Fingers crossed. More to follow, soon... 

India's top stars need to play first-class cricket at home for Test cricket to survive

Indian star batsmen hardly play domestic cricket. The last first-class domestic matches played by Virat Kohli (Ranji Trophy, 2-5 November 2012, Delhi vs UP; Irani Trophy, 1-5 October 2010, Rest of India vs Mumbai; Duleep Trophy, 26-29 January 2010) and Rohit Sharma (Duleep Trophy, 10-14 September 2016, India Blue vs India Red; Irani Trophy, 6-10 February 2013, Mumbai vs Rest of India; Ranji Trophy, 15-18 December 2012, Mumbai vs Saurashtra) explains the trouble the Indian Test team is in. They have floundered against debutants like Todd Murphy and Kuhnemann, who may not get to play again for Australia once they return home. Once the star players like Kohli and Rohit establish themselves in the India team they do not go back to domestic cricket. They only play IPL for their franchises, and unless someone like a Ravindra Jadeja wants to test his fitness after injury does he play domestic cricket, as he did in January 2023.

The BCCI has a star system which ensures that the top stars do not play first-class cricket at home. Their batting in the ongoing Test series, barring Rohit in one innings, is a testimony to the predicament Indian cricket is facing. Cheteshwar Pujara has shown how domestic cricket helps him stay grounded in basics. Players like Rohit and Kohli may be running out of time if they continue to ignore the longest format. 

The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) seems to have shot itself in the foot by presenting a sub-standard pitch at the Holkar Stadium in Indore for the third Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Pitches in India have of late been poor with Test matches not lasting the full five days. The BCCI has made no bones about its preference for such pitches under the excuse that pitches abroad are suited for the home teams. Home advantage is the reason Tests have been played on home and away basis since inception. The best Test teams in history have won both at home and away by playing good cricket. 

The Indian cricket team has won Tests in England, Australia and South Africa by playing competitive cricket on quicker and bouncier pitches. So why fix pitches at home? A plausible reason could be the susceptibility of Indian batsmen in Tests at home as the top stars do not play domestic cricket except for IPL. So the strategy (or whatever it is to be dubbed) is to unleash spinners on the opposition on dust-bowls. At least the strategy back-fired at Indore. The most consistent batsman for India has been Axar Patel who hardly had a bowl. 

The BCCI will have to ensure its top stars play more than the IPL at home. But can the star system be demolished? With a World Cup and an Asia Cup coming around every year and demand for more one-day and T20 internationals by the broadcasters, the top stars are hardly free. A player like Hardik Pandya, who could be the next full-time white-ball captain stays away from first-class cricket. And so does Shikhar Dhawan. As long as he does not retire from all forms of cricket, Dhawan needs to play domestic cricket. The state associations need to be given more teeth to force their top players' availability whenever they are available. The international schedules have to be so designed that the top stars play first-class cricket against each other. The quality of the game will improve and also benefit youngsters coming through the system. 

Justice for Sarfaraz

 If there was a more inspiring as well as depressing story, it would belong to Sarfaraz Khan. He was the only player to represent India in two successive U-19 World Cups, scoring 7 half centuries. The India U-19 coach of that time Rahul Dravid mandating that one could play just one WC at U-19 level. After his Ranji debut for Mumbai he must have felt something that forced him to move to UP. He returned back after an unsuccessful season and had to sit out the cooling period of 1 year to be eligible for Mumbai again. Since then he has scored 900 plus runs in three successive domestic seasons. His team mates from the 2016 U-19 WC team have at various times have had the selectors' nod - Prithvi, Shubhman, Pant, Washington, to name a few. And after assuring him that his time would come when he was not picked for the Bangladesh tour, the selectors have picked a T20 specialist SKY and ignored Sarfaraz again. #Justice_for_Sarfaraz