What could Indian cricket be?
It is really unfortunate to see the state of Indian cricket today, compared to what it could be. I would be the first to acknowledge that I am not an expert of the game, so my despair is not to do with team selection, the form of a particular player etc. My gripe is more about the structure of the way game is run.
Fundamentally, Indian cricket is not designed to find the best talent, and to hone the best team management skills. The BCCI is the richest cricket association in the world by far, the sad part is that India is not the best place in the world to play or watch cricket, a very basic test to the health of cricket. It is strange that even living in the US, the cricket experience is far better: one can easily join a cricket league that is suitable to your talent level, you can also watch cricket live on TV (without any time delay), and you can fly to the Caribbean to watch a live international match. None of these you can do "hassle free" in India.
On the professional front, our premier cricket league, the Ranji trophy, is region/state based. We should take a leaf out of the American and European sports leagues and make it city based and have the teams run as a corporations. This will immediately dismantle the bizarre regionalism that creeps into key decisions. The city based teams should be allowed to trade players, coaches and management from anywhere in the world. Also, these city teams should play in tiered system so that teams of roughly equal strength compete and mechanisms such as team salary caps and a certain amount of revenue sharing would create a great ecosystem for cricket.
In order to develop the right results, one has to provide the correct environment. Cricket is not progressing fast enough for its own good. The county cricket system I would guess was fundamental in England being the dominant force in cricket for so long. It was the place for the best to play the best in a structured system. Gary Packer in Australia with the introduction of commercial one-day cricket was another great innovation. Today, Australian domestic cricket is probably the most competitive cricket played on the planet. The Australians have set up the right structure and if I were a young Indian cricketer today and I wanted to hone my talents in the best possible way, I would go play cricket in Australia. This might seem outrageous but it is no different from a young scientist/engineer in India wanting to go to the USA for graduate studies (which is in fact what most IITians did and went on to be tremendously successful).
What an absolute dream it would be if Indian cricket was like European soccer, great city based teams with players from all over. As a cricket fan, I would love to go to a cricket match in Hyderabad and watch VVS and Inzy bat against Shoib and Lee. An intensely competitive and inclusive cricket league is desperately needed for Indian cricket and cricket as a whole. At the moment there is not enough supply of good cricket to keep up with the surge in demand for it. It is easy to see that if Indian cricket continues in its current state, then cricket as a whole will remain stunted.
Bangladesh is a great example of a terrific market for cricket. Unfortunately they have a struggling national team and you can be sure that the games popularity will drop in a few years if there national team keeps getting hammered. What is the solution? Let Bangladeshi players play in the Ranji trophy. As any sportsman will tell you, the best way to improve your game is to play someone moderately better than you often. Not play someone a hundred times better than you once in a while and get thrashed each time.
Fundamentally, Indian cricket is not designed to find the best talent, and to hone the best team management skills. The BCCI is the richest cricket association in the world by far, the sad part is that India is not the best place in the world to play or watch cricket, a very basic test to the health of cricket. It is strange that even living in the US, the cricket experience is far better: one can easily join a cricket league that is suitable to your talent level, you can also watch cricket live on TV (without any time delay), and you can fly to the Caribbean to watch a live international match. None of these you can do "hassle free" in India.
On the professional front, our premier cricket league, the Ranji trophy, is region/state based. We should take a leaf out of the American and European sports leagues and make it city based and have the teams run as a corporations. This will immediately dismantle the bizarre regionalism that creeps into key decisions. The city based teams should be allowed to trade players, coaches and management from anywhere in the world. Also, these city teams should play in tiered system so that teams of roughly equal strength compete and mechanisms such as team salary caps and a certain amount of revenue sharing would create a great ecosystem for cricket.
In order to develop the right results, one has to provide the correct environment. Cricket is not progressing fast enough for its own good. The county cricket system I would guess was fundamental in England being the dominant force in cricket for so long. It was the place for the best to play the best in a structured system. Gary Packer in Australia with the introduction of commercial one-day cricket was another great innovation. Today, Australian domestic cricket is probably the most competitive cricket played on the planet. The Australians have set up the right structure and if I were a young Indian cricketer today and I wanted to hone my talents in the best possible way, I would go play cricket in Australia. This might seem outrageous but it is no different from a young scientist/engineer in India wanting to go to the USA for graduate studies (which is in fact what most IITians did and went on to be tremendously successful).
What an absolute dream it would be if Indian cricket was like European soccer, great city based teams with players from all over. As a cricket fan, I would love to go to a cricket match in Hyderabad and watch VVS and Inzy bat against Shoib and Lee. An intensely competitive and inclusive cricket league is desperately needed for Indian cricket and cricket as a whole. At the moment there is not enough supply of good cricket to keep up with the surge in demand for it. It is easy to see that if Indian cricket continues in its current state, then cricket as a whole will remain stunted.
Bangladesh is a great example of a terrific market for cricket. Unfortunately they have a struggling national team and you can be sure that the games popularity will drop in a few years if there national team keeps getting hammered. What is the solution? Let Bangladeshi players play in the Ranji trophy. As any sportsman will tell you, the best way to improve your game is to play someone moderately better than you often. Not play someone a hundred times better than you once in a while and get thrashed each time.
posted by dudhwalha at 2:33 PM
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