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BCCI needs to reschedule IPL 2019

Gollum

By Gollum
in Cricket Talk

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Gollum Grand Master

Gollum

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Just checked that the WC starts on May 30 and India's 1st match is on June 5 against South Africa in Rose Bowl. Warm ups will start from around May 22nd, roughly a week before the opening match (Eng vs SA, May 30). ICC CWC 2019 SCHEDULE

 

Now next year's IPL will be held between March 29 and May 19 HERE.

 

Meaning right after IPL final our squad will have to assemble in UK in 4-5 days (max) time to get ready for the warm up fixtures. 2019 is also general elections year, so some part of IPL will be shifted to UAE/SA/Lanka etc for security reasons. This means there will be lots of traveling not just in India but also across countries.

 

This is our schedule henceforth till the WC:

June 2018: Lone test against Afghanistan

July-Sep 2018: India tour of Eng..... 3 T20s, 3 ODIs, 5 tests

Sep 2018: Asia Cup

Oct-Nov 2018: WI tour of India..... 3 T20s, 5 ODIs, 2 tests

Nov-Jan 2018-19: India tour of Aus..... 3 T20s, 3 ODIs, 4 tests

Jan-Feb 2019: India tour of NZ..... 3 T20s, 5 ODIs

Feb-Mar 2019: Aus tour of India..... 2 T20s, 5 ODIs

Mar-May 2019: IPL

June 2019: World Cup

 

Now that's a lot of cricket with no break in between. Remember 2016-17 schedule too was quite packed and by the time Aus series (2017) started most of our players were walking wounded. In IPL 2017 many of our players didn't participate because of surgery/niggles/chronic injury/fatigue etc.  Those who play all formats (Kohli, Bhuvi, Bumrah, Dhawan, Pandya etc) will again be most affected because of non stop cricket. We can't even rest the main players often because there are 2 very important tours (Eng, Aus) and the ODI cricket in early 2019 has been scheduled to allow the players to get into white ball groove. Skipping the ODIs before the WC may even break the momentum of our main players.

 

We saw how knackered Kohli became because of IPL this year, he now has to skip his well planned Surrey stint before his biggest test in England. And Kohli is probably the fittest guy in world cricket, imagine the effect on guys like Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Shami who are much more injury prone. At least Kohli will be getting a month of rest before departing for England, next year he will be lucky to get a week's rest before flying to England. WC is not CT, we will have to play 9 group matches followed by SF/F if we are to win the whole thing, more than double the workload of CT and probably triple the mental pressure because of the occasion. We may even start off well but lose ground towards the business end because of mental/physical fatigue. This is unprecedented for our players because both 2011 and 2015 editions of the WC took place before IPL, so they won't be prepared for stress like this. I have legit fears that some of our big dogs will miss the marquee event and we will deploy an under strength Indian team. 

 

2019 WC is a wide open tournament with no standout team, every contender has big flaws. The winner will most likely be one of the weakest ever teams to win a WC and India has a decent shot at the title provided the right steps are taken (selection, scheduling, preparation, workload management). I sincerely wish Kohli or Bevda start talking about this shocking piece of scheduling. Why not push the IPL to Sep-Oct? That way most of the Aus, Eng, WI, NZ, SA players can participate for the entirety of the league and there won''t be any jhamela of shifting it overseas. That time of the year is peak cricket season in India and the climate/crowd/viewership will be top notch. SA are scheduled to visit our shores in October 2019 for 3 tests, we can always push that back by 15-20 days (or even till early 2020 if the need arises !!!), now that Lorgat is not there to act like a roadblock. After all we did sacrifice part of our home season earlier this year to tour there, there has to be give and take in any relationship and BCCI is a much stronger board than CSA. Mind you this is just a one off problem for us. 2023 WC is in India, 2027 and 2031 will be in SA/WI/Aus-NZ....meaning WC will be in the Feb-April period. Next time ICC hosts a 50 over WC in Britain I am sure IPL will be a big enough entity to force them to push the ICC event back themselves.

 

Hope BCCI babus grow a few brain cells for a change and do what is right for Indian cricket. If we aren't going to take drastic measures we can kiss our WC chances goodbye now itself. If there are any well wishers of Indian cricket left in BCCI the IPL will be shifted post WC and players will be allowed to rest/recuperate in Mar/Apr before flying off to England in mid May to get acclimatized to the conditions. We can also arrange a short tri-series with Ireland and SA (or NZ/Aus...basically a strong enough contender team) in Ireland early May to fine tune our final preparations and get a better idea about the prospective XI.....not saying we have to do this but there are options on the table to get the best possible preparation before the WC.

 

Edited by Gollum
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Khota Veteran

Khota

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Posted
18 minutes ago, Gollum said:

So you prioritize a league over India's WC chances?

No I don't. They are professionals who should be able to hack it and 10 days is plenty of time to recover. I hate it what ICC has done because of the success of IPl they are jealous of BCCI but India should still be able to win it.

IPL is a very important tournament and every effort should be made to strengthen it not weaken it. This is first true success India is enjoying at world stage. No compromise.

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Gollum Grand Master

Gollum

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7 minutes ago, Khota said:

No I don't. They are professionals who should be able to hack it and 10 days is plenty of time to recover. I hate it what ICC has done because of the success of IPl they are jealous of BCCI but India should still be able to win it.

IPL is a very important tournament and every effort should be made to strengthen it not weaken it. This is first true success India is enjoying at world stage. No compromise.

It's a compromise just for a single year man, as I wrote in OP 2023/2027/2031 WCs won't have this problem because they will be scheduled in Feb-April. By the time England gets the next WC (2035?), IPL will be too big for ICC to repeat such scheduling or may be WC concept may be extinct. 

 

And no 10 days (btw we won't even get that many days, just 3-4) is not plenty of time to recover when you have been grinding it out for 10 months straight. Even tennis players who are the epitome of fitness have a long enough off season after the YEC. NBA players don't play whole year either, before FIFA WC all players will get min 3 weeks to rest/prepare.

Edited by Gollum
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Gollum Grand Master

Gollum

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@Khota How is rescheduling it for a single year going to weaken it? Sep-Oct is prime cricket season in India and the climate is perfect. Besides whole tournament can be held in India, we have general elections next year (April-May) and probably will have to take IPL overseas in the current arrangement.

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Gollum Grand Master

Gollum

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11 minutes ago, asterix said:


That’s primarily because of the realisation that the player themselves are putting IPL over International cricket...

But how is that even possible? Every 2-3 years they become part of a new franchise and most players play for outfits far away from their hometowns, eg Rahul/Ashwin in Punjab, Kohli in Bengaluru, Dhawan in Hyderabad etc...... how can one inculcate loyalty? There was no Tamil player in the CSK winning team, no Bengali in KKR, no Telugu in SRH......how on Earth can IPL be above international cricket for the players and fans?

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