How to improve standard of domestic cricket in India?

[rkt.india]

How to improve standard of domestic cricket in India?

How to improve standard of domestic cricket in India?

I always take a huge interest in domestic cricket because that is the root which the Indian cricket tree stands upon. For the last few years, since I started using internet regularly, I do not miss a single first class match, may not watch, but still keep an eye on these matches because these are the matches where we see our next potential Indian batsmen and bowlers. Domestic cricket is the place where they hone their skills and technique. This is the cricket which has given us great cricketers over the years, but when I see how it has been continuously ignored by the BCCI, I wonder where the next set of great cricketers will emerge from. It also highlights how our priorities have changed in recent years. Cricket in India was never well managed, basic building blocks were always weak, fitness issues were always there, scheduling was never appropriate however the advent of IPL has exposed these frailties like never before and it is talked about more now. I am not criticizing IPL and I am not against IPL either. It certainly has brought some good things as well as some not so good things to Indian cricket, but it is now a part of the picture and we cannot deny it its due, so we must move on and not blame IPL when we get unfavorable result. Domestic cricket scheduling and standard of Ranji Trophy has been a subject of debate after IPL and CL T20 have been scheduled in our domestic cricket calendar. There is so much cricket and so many matches played in a short period of time. Our season mainly lasts 6 months from October to March and we have CL T20, Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Vijay Hazaare Tropy, Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy played during this window. And then there is the issue of the numbers of teams we have in domestic cricket but I will not suggest a reduction to the number of teams because it will not be a good idea to have 6 or 8 teams in a hugely populated country like ours, so replicating Australian domestic structure will not be the right thing for the BCCI to do. There must be some introspection done by BCCI after our England debacle to write out why we lost so badly in England which proved a one-sided affair after third test. Domestic cricket must cross their mind as well because this is one of the few reasons for our loss in England. We have not managed to produce a good opener after Gambhir and Sehwag, we still have not sorted out the conundrum of the number 6 batsman and we still do not have a good fast bowling unit. We usually resort to our tried and tested failures after trying young players for a couple of matches. It must be apparently clear by now that without a good pace bowling attack, we cannot win test matches abroad on a consistent basis. Even in India, we are now producing more draws than wins because we do not have quality spinners to play a match winning role and make the spinner's slot his own. Dilip Vengsarkar once said that we do not have talent at domestic level. I am not sure how correct that statement was because we have always been like that and still we found some great talented players. One of my points being we need to find and refine the talent we have. Certainly, some players possess god-gifted talent, but that talent too must be nurtured mentally and physically. There is a quote which is the mantra of my life that is " I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ." This quote certainly fits the bill perfectly to my perception that you may not be as talented as your counterpart, but your extra effort can certainly make up for you do not possess. I mean to say a cricketer can be made, even an average cricketer can be turned into a world beater, it is more about If We Can. We certainly can as BCCI has ample resources to do it. They just need to come out of their comfort zone and think about cricket in their meetings rather than discussing useless accumulation of those resources resulting in benefit to no one. Improving standards of domestic cricket must be the priority now to ensure that we do not end in the company of West Indies who have stumbled from one failure to the next in the past 15 years. BCCI must acknowledge that their coffers are only full as long as the Indian team performs well and once cricket's all time legends retire and we start performing badly, selling cricket to advertisers and broadcasters can become a headache. I can see the future now if the right steps are not taken by the BCCI. Though these steps lag by 2-3 years in time, but BCCI can still plan before it is too late. It takes years of toil, pain, and sacrifices to build an empire, but it only takes a moment in time to collapse all around us and it will be too late to realize when it came to this pass. We can also witness a long hiatus of drought, harsh realities, and disappointments after the golden decade (late 2001 to early 2011) which ended with our ODI Wold Cup win. We need to be alive, alert, and fresh and this is for the board which runs cricket in our country. BCCI already has so many problems to solve, but they are living in an illusion created by the greenery Indian cricket has brought to them. Will the thrashing by England wake them up? This is a very short question which is up in the air and in the mind of every Indian cricket fan. Are they listening to the winds which are bringing bad news every passing day of this England tour or are they just waiting for the disaster to unfold which will surely bring ruin to Indian cricket for years? I am an Indian cricket fan, simple and ordinary, but still capable of think about improvements to Indian cricket that is why I really want BCCI to take the few steps necessary to further improve our cricket structure and standard at the grass root level. I have always been positive and still believe that there is hope because hope is life. We need to think about First Class tournaments we play at domestic level like Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy and prioritize one of them. For me, it should be Duleep Trophy which is a zonal tournament which involves the best players from every zone, but it has been cut short by BCCI and is there just to fill space nowadays. I want this to be our main FC tournament based on which we should select our cricketers rather than Ranji Trophy which involves 28 teams. I have derived an idea according to which both Ranji and Duleep Trophy should be played simultaneously. First I shall talk about Duleep Trophy and how it should be structured. There are five zonal teams and every team should play two FC matches against each other, home and away, these should be 5-day games. It means a team will play at least 8 FC matches in a season in Duleep Trophy and the emerging top two teams will then play a final. All matches must be shown live on TV because there will be only two matches played simultaneously. All Duleep trophy matches should be played at centers whose pitches are good for cricket and sporting like Mohali, Dharmshala, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderbad, Nagpur, DY Patil, Wankhede, Holkar Stadium Indore, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, and Kochi. A centralized curator should prepare tracks to be played on to have results in mind and not of particular team choice. This will also invigorate various other centers to improve the quality of their pitches. Zonal teams must consist of the best players of their respective zones. This tournament should start in October and end in March. So, they have six months to organize this. Players need to have enough breaks (4-5 days) between the matches as well. Every Duleep Trophy squad should contain 14 players. I do not believe we need yet another T20 tournament (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) when we have the IPL in April-May which is a domestic T20 championship. Ranji Trophy will also be played simultaneously from October to March in which rest of the players will participate. Every Ranji Trophy squad should consist of 16 players. In this manner, we will have the 70 best players in the country playing in the Duleep Trophy and around 450 other potentially good players in the Ranji Trophy aspiring to progress to Duleep trophy and eventually into the national team. Another important aspect would be if a player in the Duleep Trophy does not perform well enough or is injured half way through the tournament (after 4 matches), he will be replaced by the best performing player in the Ranji Trophy from his zone and the replaced player will return to the Ranji trophy to improve his performances and will only be promoted to Duleep again based on improved performances. The only selection criteria then for that national team will be the Duleep Trophy though there is space for some exceptions if a player has performed extraordinarily in Ranji in his initial year and is considered to be too talented and has not played Duleep like in case of SRT. TRDO system should be started again by BCCI which will entail talent scouts watching every U-17, U-19, Ranji, and Duleep trophy match and reporting to the board and selectors. Fitness standard is another aspect of cricket which helps cricketers being athletic. Overweight cricketers should not be allowed to play in Duleep Trophy. Even if someone is promoted from Ranji to Duleep, he must be in shape. This should be looked after by centralized physiotherapists for every zonal team who are responsible for any problem or chaos their respective teams face in terms of fitness. TRDO observers will report of any error or problem they see in regard to this. Another important aspect is how to take cricketers who perform well in Duleep Trophy to the next level as compared to the standard in Duleep Trophy so that they are ready whenever they are picked for national teams. For this, we must strength our India A squad which must consist of the 20 best performing players in the Duleep Trophy. This team should have tours to Australia, South Africa, England, and New Zealand in two year cycles to play FC matches. This is a process which certainly will improve overall standard of our cricketers. Lastly, one can also consider an India A team playing the county season which could again enable players to strengthen their craft for test match cricket. This tiered domestic structure where players can aspire for the next step based on merit rather than nepotism will greatly strengthen our cricket. This is my honest belief and I wish to hear your thoughts on this.

[rkt.india]

Thanks Gunner to help me out wri:two_thumbs_up:ting this.

[Fontaine]

I would be happy enough with this: http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?p=1600941#post1600941

The basic problem is that younger players tend to struggle abroad in places where the conditions are vastly different than in India. Pace/Bounce/Swing will trouble any young batsmen, not just Indian batsmen. So, to ensure younger players have developed the correct technique/temperament it's necessary to have pitches in India in domestic cricket that do provide that kind of pace/bounce. There is absolutely no excuses. In the recently finished IPL, we all saw pitches that had a great deal of pace and bounce and green tops that helped the seamers. Ishant Sharma looked awesome at times bowling in those conditions. So how did the IPL get those kinds of pitches? - The franchises had curators come in from abroad (Australia/SA) that prepared those tracks. So why can't the BCCI do the same thing (bring in consultants/curators from abroad for domestic cricket)? - Well, who the hell knows. Maybe it's a money issue, maybe it's something else. What I do know is that if the IPL can get those kinds of pitches then there's no valid reason why we can't have the same for domestic cricket. So how will bounce/pace/seaming tracks help our younger players? - Simple. If the BCCI can ensure these kinds of tracks, then at least for the first few sessions we can get genuine pace/bounce where a batsmen's worth will be found out. Then as the heat/sun take their toll, stop covering the track, over rolling it so that in the final few sessions spin bowling becomes a major factor. This way your not only finding out what batsmen can do (which would naturally help the selectors but also prepare the batsmen for English/SA/Aussi condtions). This would also help seperate the bowlers that can do well in these conditions consistently and give a reason for pace bowlers to work on their skills and bowl faster when the conditions help. So, if it's that simple why hasn't it been done already? - Again, who the hell knows? After the Carribean WC disaster when we got knocked out by Bangla boys the BCCI carried out a full investigation and set of recommendations. Remember that? One of the big recommendations was to prepare more sporting tracks instead of dead flat tracks. That was in a full report recommendation from the BCCI itself. That was years ago. Here, read it for yourself and weep: http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/apr/07dravid.htm So why has this not been done? This report was from 2007? - Again, only the BCCI can answer that. My personal opinion is that the BCCI follow an appeasement route. If there's enough media/public outcry then they'll do something to appear to be working on the issue and try and appease the fans. Then when the issue is forgotten about they go back to working as hard as possible to generate more revenue. The BCCI literally, were ready to take on ALL of the other cricketing boards in the world during the ICL vs IPL issue where they pretty were ordering other boards not to support the ICL, allow their players to play in the ICL and so on. The BCCI went through months and months of effort, lawsuits, meetings and conferences to try and destroy the ICL just to make the IPL as profiteable as posssible. Do we see the BCCI give half as much effort in following through the self made recommendations for sporting tracks? For proper fitness/nutritional coaching? Bowling coaches? I think we all know the answer to that one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * To be fair, there have been a few/some cases where pitches have been more sporting but on the whole it's nowhere near where it needs to be. ** People have suggested foreign A class tours etc. That has already been done and we do have regular A class tours but a few matches here and there abroad isn't enough. Indian players shouldn't need to go abroad to learn the basic necessities/skills. If the IPL has taught us anything it's that the expertise/knowledge can be brought to India, IF the BCCI is committed enough.

[Moman211]

Quite simple prepare pitches which are not so flat that the ball doesnt rise above your waste. Create pitches that offer something to the bowlers. india has a lot of different climates so i dont understand why all the pitches are flat

[Sir john]

selection is the main issue i think.

[Trichromatic]

also whats wrong with my observation

Nothing. It might be good idea to give different types of tracks for domestic cricket especially more bowler friendly. I'm not sure what they get now.

[Moman211]

Nothing. It might be good idea to give different types of tracks for domestic cricket especially more bowler friendly. I'm not sure what they get now.

thats the point in was trying to make.

[rajmarie]

This always surface when the team struggle overseas...but nothing happens EVER. The condition stays the same. eg...Ranji trophy winners are decided by team scoring more runs in 1st innings. I say..why not change it into Teams picking more wickets...in 1st innings & if eqaul..then add wickets from 2nd innings

[Moman211]

This always surface when the team struggle overseas...but nothing happens EVER. The condition stays the same. eg...Ranji trophy winners are decided by team scoring more runs in 1st innings. I say..why not change it into Teams picking more wickets...in 1st innings & if eqaul..then add wickets from 2nd innings

What youve just mentioned about that ranji trophy is the exact reason why India have 3 seamers who are test standard.(sharma,ZAK and kumar btw sree aint intl class never mind test) i mean what incentive would teams have to play their best bowlers when the target is score the most runs not take wickets. also this makes groundsmen prepare the most flat pitches they can.

[CG]

Domestic Cricket Has improved a lot,Pitches are not as flat as everybody.there have been some green tracks.you cannot change nature of wickets ,india will always be batting and spin friendly . We have got some good bowlers and batsman through domestic cricket ,With IPL no talent is also going to be wasted.

[anotherhawkeye]

Great article rkt.:two_thumbs_up: This should be forwarded to Srinivasan.

[rkt.india]

@Fontaine I do no think only good seaming of fast pitches can improve domestic cricket. Other New Zealand would have been one of the leading test country but they are not. There are a lot of other factors too which decide overall standard of cricket and the players that come out from that domestic cricket.

[rkt.india]

new zealand dont have a big enough population to produce enough cricketers to dominate cricket which is probably their third most popular sport' date=' most of their best athletes chose rugby union ,league probably even football ahead of cricket[/quote'] Same thing is with England. Australia too do not have a huge population, little bit more than Mumabi's.

[Trichromatic]

Even traditional spinning tracks should be more helpful than the dead tracks. India should stick to turners only. Maybe they can prepare one or two fast pitches, but there is no need to change all pitches. That's not going to help. Pakistan doesn't has fast pitches like England or SA. But for long time they produced better pacers than England.

[Chandan]

I had these views months back. What do you say about this now?

[IKnowU]

Improving domestic cricket starts at the grass roots. When we can fix the grass roots, the talent pool increases exponentially.

[Sooda]

The BCCI should appoint Chandan as head of domestic cricket scheduling, pitch comittee and structure. More seriously, that the Duleep Trophy should be made the primary tournament is a great key idea. Right now there are far too many teams and players and guys can fill their boots versus too many sub standard bowlings. Also means far too much cricket is being played in a short space of time, bowlers in particular have little time to recover between matches and all the travelling they are doing. There was a really good thread a while back on this and Chandan suggested the same thing, ..some good discussion on that on, will see if I can find.

[Fontaine]

@Fontaine I do no think only good seaming of fast pitches can improve domestic cricket. Other New Zealand would have been one of the leading test country but they are not. There are a lot of other factors too which decide overall standard of cricket and the players that come out from that domestic cricket.

Yes, that's true, but it's also true that New Zealand have a population of just a few million where rugby is the primary sport. As you said in your post the administration side of selection/infrastructure can vastly be improved but that's not going to change the nature of the talent that's there. In order to find the best talent (as opposed to flat track batsmen) and get it ready for international cricket I believe the pitches play a fundamental role, that's the first and most important step. Put it this way, if we had the best domestic cricket structure yet still played on flat, dead tracks then even our most talented younger players would struggle abroad because they don't get enough real practice in seaming/swinging conditions. And finally, what's the most simplest and quickest thing to do? Changing the insfrasture/schedule/nature of domestic cricket or improving the pitches? I don't have any real hope of the former being changed even over three/four years. But with the proper resources pitches can change over a matter of a few months with far less cost.

[rkt.india]

Yes, that's true, but it's also true that New Zealand have a population of just a few million where rugby is the primary sport. As you said in your post the administration side of selection/infrastructure can vastly be improved but that's not going to change the nature of the talent that's there. In order to find the best talent (as opposed to flat track batsmen) and get it ready for international cricket I believe the pitches play a fundamental role, that's the first and most important step. Put it this way, if we had the best domestic cricket structure yet still played on flat, dead tracks then even our most talented younger players would struggle abroad because they don't get enough real practice in seaming/swinging conditions. And finally, what's the most simplest and quickest thing to do? Changing the insfrasture/schedule/nature of domestic cricket or improving the pitches? I don't have any real hope of the former being changed even over three/four years. But with the proper resources pitches can change over a matter of a few months with far less cost.

I have also mentioned about tracks to be played on and how the level of cricket can be raised higher from Duleep if our A team have away tours in a 2-year cycle consistently. There will not be much benefit if same players play against each other whether pitches are seaming or batting friendly because we are already seeing quite a few seaming pitches in India, but problem with Indian conditions is that pitches ease out drastically after first or second sessions play whatever seaming pitch they have prepared. It will yield more one-sided affairs in domestic cricket depending on more who wins the toss wins the match. This is not the best thing to do. Instead I would prefer hard and bouncier pitches rather than too greenish or moist. Like England Lions or England Development squad travels with national team at most places, we must derive some plan about this so that these players play more matches in alien conditions and faces better attacks.

[rkt.india]

I had these views months back. What do you say about this now?

I have always thought that, even before I had joined ICF, Duleep trophy should be our main FC tournament and basis of selection but even then we need to raise the overall quality of cricket by several notches.