The "Real Problem" – A Domestic format which will make Cricket work……

With the April 6 meeting approaching, many authors – both non-cricketers and former Test players have written about the real problem plaguing Indian Cricket. These problem descriptions rarely seem to stray beyond the usual errand list… Stardom, poor fitness, poor cricket grounds at grass roots level, player-agent nexus, honorary selection committee, unprofessional BCCI, endorsements, lack of talent in domestic cricket and many other related issues. Very rarely do these writers offer solutions. This is largely because the problem description is usual rhetorical.

The core problem as i see it, is that Cricket has ceased to be a sport. It is not a professional sport in India, beyond the national team. First class cricketers have only recently been able to make a realistic living out of first class cricket. Because there is no real first class cricket, there is no real cricketing basis to the support for Cricket. The vast majority of Cricket fans would be unable to name the captain of their Ranji team, let alone the naming the whole team. It is not unnatural in such circumstances that India cricketers be viewed irrationally – not as sportsmen, but merely as stars.

On the other hand, there is clearly a great deal of interest in Cricket – to the extent that a lot of people play it on their local grounds, gullies and apartment compounds. Many others don’t, but are rarely, if ever completely removed from it.

This interest in Cricket needs to be directed at some form of organized Cricket – which people can watch purely as Cricket – without nationalistic strings laced with the peculiar mixture of awe, envy and hero worship which accompanies India matches. This must surely be first class cricket – and if BCCI doesn’t move quickly, then Subhash Chandra is already moving to fill this void. Mr Chandra will pursue it as a business venture and hence his priorities will understandably be towards the business and not so much to the sport. His indication that he intends to focus on Twenty-20 and later One Day games seems to confirm this.

The primary goal of First class cricket can not be as a talent pool for the national side. First class cricket is an end in itself – the national team can be derived from it, and the point of the exercise must be to have first class cricket which showcase the widest range of first class talent. I have come across many ideas for doing this.

Some have suggested that there ought to be only 10 first class teams – the 5 best Ranji sides and 5 Zonal sides a la Duleep Trophy made up of the other Ranji sides, each playing the other twice (home and away). Some have suggested playing only an enhanced Duleep Trophy and scrapping the Ranji Trophy all together. The BCCI has resisted reducing the number of first class teams, in large part because no association is likely to fore go the opportunity to field a Ranji Trophy side. Their proposals have ranged from tiering (currently in place) to a quasi World Cup strategy described here. I have described a possible format here.

27 Ranji Trophy sides are divided into 3 groups – A, B and C of 9 teams each. A round robin league is conducted in each group (each side plays 8 games), at the end of which positions 1,2,3 from each group form a 9 team league – lets call it Level 1, 4,5,6 form a second 9 team league – Level 2 and 7,8,9 – Level 3 form a third 9 team league. In my initial proposal, the first 9 team league comprising of the top 3 teams from groups A, B and C played a round robin league – each side playing 6 games and carrying over their results against the fellow qualifiers from their initial groups. The top 4 teams from this group would play the semi final and final for the Ranji trophy.

This is problematic, because the other 18 teams have pretty much nothing real to play for, apart from a favorable seeding for the next season. A possible modification is that the 4 Ranji Semi-final slots would be made up of – the top 2 Level 1 league teams, and the winners of the Level 2 and Level 3 leagues. Thus, all 27 teams would always have a chance of making the Ranji Semi final, even if they don’t finish in the top 3 in their original groups (A, B or C).

This guarantees every first class cricketer 14 first class games in a season. It will keep many cricket grounds busy and will provide ample opportunity for Test players to play first class cricket.

The “real problem” is the turn cricket into a truly national Sport. India will never been cricketing top dogs until Cricket’s biggest competition in India is Bollywood. Cricket will emerge stronger only if Cricket establishes itself as a strong domestic sport, and finds competition from other sports like Hockey and Football in doing so. That is how sport will make a real contribution to India.

Currently it is purely escapist fantasy a la Bollywood.

Cricketing View