This post proposes a development of an earlier format discussed here, which was inspired in parts by the Cricket Committee proposed revision of the domestic format, the Super 6/Super 8 idea from the World Cup and the need for broader First Class Cricket with more games and a higher profile. I would refer readers to the discussion in the comments section of this post on homer’s blog. The outline is for this version is as follows:
1. The Duleep Trophy as we know it will be scrapped. No Zonal team will be constituted.
2. The Irani Trophy will not feature Ranji Champions v Rest of India, but will feature India v Rest of India, and will be a 5 day match scheduled to suit the schedule of the Test team before their international test season starts in October.
3. The Salve Challenger Trophy will also be scrapped.
The reason for Duleep and Challenger trophies being scrapped is that they consist of scratch teams, and are reduced to being rank selection trials.
A look at the domestic seasons in the top test playing nations reveals the following:
Competition, Matches per team, Number of Teams
India (Ranji Trophy), 8, 27
India (Duleep Trophy), 3, 6
Australia, 11, 6
South Africa (SuperSport), 10, 6
South Africa (Provincial), 8, 17
England, 16, 17
New Zealand (State Championships + State Shield), 18, 6
West Indies, 5, 6
Pakistan (Patrons Trophy), 7, 9
Pakistan (Pentangular Trophy), 4, 5
Australia also have a second eleven tournament parallel to the Pura Cup. The number of matches in the above list are based on the 2006-07 season (2006 for England). Pakistan also have the Quaid-e-Azam trophy in addition to the Patrons Trophy and Pentangular Trophy. It is clear that India does not play enough first class cricket. Should India have fewer first class teams? If you consider the population and interest in cricket, you might consider that India should indeed possibly have more than 27 first class teams.
In order to ensure that more Cricket is played, heres a modification to the system proposed earlier. Let the two teams be divided geographically int0 2 Zones – North and South.
Teams in North Zone:
Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Services, Tripura, Railways, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Baroda, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand
Teams in South Zone:
Saurashtra, Maharashtra, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Orissa, Goa, Kerala, Vidharbha.
Each Zone would have its own Round Robin League – Each side playing 13 games (in North Zone) and 12 (in South Zone) respectively. The 5 Top sides from each Zone at the end of the league phase would play in a Super League – carrying over points against the other 4 Zones in their respective leagues, and playing 5 games each in the League phase. However, a win in the Super League would be worth more than a Win in the North Zone or South Zone League. So if a team carries over 2 points for an outright win from the zonal league phase, a win in Super league would be worth 3 points.
The top 4 Teams would compete in the knock out semi-final and final. The season will begin on October 1 and the Ranji Trophy Final will be scheduled for the First Week of April (the only place India tours in the first week of April is West Indies, so Test players would be available for the Ranji Final. Most schools also complete their final exams by then). The Zonal Leagues would be completed by the end of January – each side playing 13 games in 4 months – October, November, December, January. The super league will be completed by 15th of March – 5 matches for each side in 7 tough weeks.
Each 4 day game will be followed by the corresponding One Day game for the Ranji ODI league. The National One Day Final will be the Final first class game of the season.
Is it possible to fit all this Cricket into a single season? 12/13 or 18 first class games in a season? The New Zealanders do it, as do the South Africans. English counties sides at one time played over 30 first class games in the English season – mid March to mid September – including Test Matches. Given that each association has their own Cricket ground, this is not as difficult as it looks. It will require a great deal of planning and management – every effort will have to be made to ensure that teams are not tired out by uselessly long rail journeys – there are plenty of airline options in India now. But logistically, it is not unrealistic.
Given top quality grounds, televised Ranji trophy matches, and a higher profile in general (possibly 1 overseas player per team as well – but thats a debate for another day), local associations would also be more accountable – would be in sharper focus for cricketing reasons. We may even find better attendance at First Class games if they are televised and hence given a higher profile. Local selectors at the smaller centres will be in focus – and the local associations, which currently wield enormous power (through their vote), but are never held accountable will have an audience which will question and criticize – keeping them on their toes. Also, onces these associations get into the habit of having to organize a first class match every week or every other week – 5-6 months a year, they will automatically learn better cricket management, and engage in superior professional practices.
If First Class Cricketers are gauranteed 12 First class and 12 One Day matches a year – and paid say a flat fee of say 30 thousand rupees for a Ranji match and about 18 thousand rupees for an One Day game (they probably make more now and this figure could be higher – i have only mentioned these figures for the sake of the argument), plus performance bonuses, a domestic cricketer will make 5,00,000 rupees a year atleast which is a decent income ensuring a comfortable middle class existence (its about the same amount of money that an engineer with 4-5 years of good experience makes). This is crucial if the quality of first class cricket has to be sustained. If players are forced to give up first class cricket at the age of 30, not because they’re not making runs or taking wickets, but because they need to support a family and can’t do so on first class cricket wages, then Cricket is the loser. With better pay, senior professionals from the top first class teams would be encouraged to move to smaller teams to help them out.
The point is the create a counterpoint to the Indian side as far as the abstract behemoth called “Indian Cricket” is concerned. Until this happens, the national team exists precariously, on a brittle foundation.
Kartikeyadate's Weblog 
May 7, 2007 at 6:11 pm
couple of questions Kartikeya-
1. how does this format lend to the Indian team selection?
2. u mention “With better pay, senior professionals from the top first class teams would be encouraged to move to smaller teams to hep them out” – I cannot quite figure this movement of personnel across teams. Could you elaborate?
May 7, 2007 at 6:57 pm
1. It does not do so directly – in so far as it is not designed to feed the Indian side. What it does aim to do is to create a higher standard of cricketers overall. Players for the Indian side should in my view be picked on potential more than on a ton of domestic runs in any case. Because if a player is going to be a match winner in international cricket, he’s going to be one at 20-22. You will rarely find that a cricketer has been ordinary for the first 6-7 years of his domestic career, had one great domestic season, and subsequently conquered international cricket.
That one season in which the gifted international quality players with that little bit extra (such as Yuvraj Singh or Mohammad Kaif) are tested – will be a more rigorous, higher quality season.
I see the Indian team as a by product of a strong domestic system and not vice versa. The South Africa’s returned to International Cricket as a strong team because the Currie Cup was always a very competitive tournament – players who played county cricket – another rigorous first class competition – Donald, Rice, MacMillan gave SA the edge. The Aussies have a strong first class set up. Pakistan and West Indies sides have been for years filled with cricketers who played county cricket – when that pool dried up, they stopped being top dogs.
The best pool for a national side is a rigorous first class grind.
2. The second point – the common refrain is that there are weak teams amongst the Ranji line up. Even of the 27 that i have listed by North and South Zone you could probably name only 10-12 decent teams. What are the exceptions? Sandeep Patil went to MP and lead them to Ranji Trophy Finals. Chandrakant Pandit followed him there and built on what he did. Many Bombay Cricketers like Manoj Joglekar moved to places like Assam – Paras Mhambrey went to Bengal as Coach, Sairaj Bahutule went to Maharashtra.
With more games, and television and better sponsorship for Ranji teams, there will be better more money to go around. Players who have played with great success in Ranji Trophy for strong sides will be able to move to the weaker sides – thats the best way to develop stronger first class sides.
You are not going to see results immediatly – but i think that 10 years down the line you will find 5 different winners of the Ranji Trophy in 5 years. If a weak side – like say Assam or Jharkhand wins the Ranji Trophy, it gives the side a boost – they make a name for themselves – the result? 5-6 years later a generation inspired by that triumph emerges….
Cricket truly becomes a sport.
Now – if you could create 10 or 12 permanent teams and completely scrap the current Ranji sides – it would probably create a better league. But here are your problems:
1. You would again create too few first class cricketers for a country of India’s size.
2. You would never get an association to declare itself null and void.
May 7, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Kartik,
With the number of teams participating in our domestic structure, it is difficult to identify very talented players who play for the smaller teams. The Cricket League in Madras is of very high quality and could serve as a template for feeder system that we should have for the Indian team. What we should have is 3 divisions in our domestic set-up with selections strictly from the top-most division. Also, players shifting teams should be made easier while having restrictions on the number of shifts within a year, etc. This would make the best players want to play for the top division teams and will create a structure where the cream always comes to the top.
May 7, 2007 at 8:46 pm
That is the question in my view – is domestic cricket merely a feeder to the Indian Team?
I don’t view it that way. I think that view is counterproductive for the welfare of Cricket in India. Domestic Cricket is an end in itself – it has to be.
The quality of the domestic competition is determined by the quality of the worst team in the competition. Right now, even the Zonal teams are too weak to compete with county of shield outfits. So creaming will be yet another top heavy solution in the hope of a miracle.
Creaming won’t work – because it is abusive of the first class system.
May 7, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Kartikeya,
What you propose works if the domestic structure is a self sustaining entity.
But our domestic structure depends heavily on revenues generated by international cricket and therefore, if there is no channel to feed into and from International cricket, the domestic structure will collapse for want of revenues and resources.
May 7, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Exactly…. thats why its needs to be rebuilt. It needs more attention and more basic structural changes than the national team.
May 13, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Still I think if one team has just one or two decent players, the cricket is going to be extremely boring. Have you watched a match between Orissa and Haryana, or kerala and J&k? I don’t think I’d like to watch these two teams play each other, even if I’m a die hard cricket fan who has ample time!
I think to make domestic cricket exciting and popular, you will HAVE to make Duleep Trophy your premier domestic tournament, as Wright has suggested and also Ajit Wadekar and Bedi had also said!
Also, we’ll be able to pick players on the basis of their performance in this tournament because each run scored would be against 25 best bowlers and each wicket taken would be of one of the 66 best cricketers in the country.
In the meanwhile, we’ll have Ranji trophy going on too, giving each of the 27 teams 7-8 matches. so whats the harm in this idea?
May 13, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Also, please get rid of the word verification, if you want me to comment.