Good days again for domestic cricket

By Vijay Mohan Raj Hyderabad: I am pleasantly surprised that the BCCI has made a U-turn by returning to the Duleep and Irani Trophy tournaments. Also welcoming is that Ranji Trophy matches will now be played on home-away basis like the good old days. To add to these is the amendment that the Ranj Trophy […]

By Vijay Mohan Raj

Hyderabad: I am pleasantly surprised that the BCCI has made a U-turn by returning to the Duleep and Irani Trophy tournaments. Also welcoming is that Ranji Trophy matches will now be played on home-away basis like the good old days.

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To add to these is the amendment that the Ranj Trophy Elite and Plate will be entirely two different formats and therefore the plate teams will not play in the Elite knock-out stage of the tournament as was earlier.

These amendments to the previous years’ tournaments shall ensure that standards will be maintained in the Elite group Ranji Trophy knock-outs unlike last year when there were glaring difference in the standards of Plate and Elite teams.

The most appreciative part is that after a long time the teams in Ranji Trophy will play in front of their home crowds. This phenomenon will ensure better spectator following in the stadiums as also enthuse the local cricketers to see their stars perform and create a fan-following in their own States.

The local flavor was also originally envisaged when the IPL was envisaged and thereby the auction was of city teams and the principal was to ensure that there is development of the game at city level. However, as it has turned out the IPL teams in some cases do not have any local players and although the teams are slated as city-based it does not fulfill the objective for which this competition was created.

As I can view domestic cricket from the side lines and compare the game as it was played until the 80’s and after the decline on the focus that the BCCI had on ensuring constructive participation of players in these tournaments has shown a steady decline.

The international calendar that the BCCI has adopted has ensured that there is creation of huge revenues and therefore it results in the non-participation of our national team stars in the domestic circuit. The result is that the city spectators do not have adequate interest in watching domestic matches as the matches are played without the international cricketers in most cases.

In my opinion it is imperative that we give utmost importance to domestic cricket tournaments and balance the international schedule in a manner that the International stars compete with the ‘rookies’ which will eventually provide challenges such that it will enthuse spectators to throng the game as also in the long run raise the standard of the completion.

The World Champions crown that the Indian team has worn for a large part of the previous decade has made the administration justify every action and decision of theirs and begun to assume that their ways are the best. This is a fallacy because in any sport the standards are never constant and one has to evolve by accepting that there is a way that could be “BETTER THAN THE BEST”.

– Writer is a former Hyderabad and Mumbai Ranji cricketer.