An Annual Cricket Calender – Urgently needed…..

Every now and then, an Indian captain complains about “too much cricket” or “crammed schedules”. These are interchangeable complaints and the ensuing sparring between the board and the captain usually covers these two issues. Now it has happened with Rahul Dravid and the undaunted Mr. Modi of the Sharad Pawar BCCI. The following is a count of Test matches and ODI’s for each calender year in this decade.

The numbers for Pakistan ought to be viewed in the context of the impact of 9/11 on Pakistan as a venue. There is some truth to Mr. Modi’s contention that India have not played more cricket than Australia or England. Infact, England have played more Test Cricket than India have.

The BCCI is a rich, powerful board, but seems unable to use this power and influence to establish a definite Indian Cricket calender. I agree that it is difficult, given that India share their season with every test playing country except England. With a well defined season, with some amount of cyclic regularity, will ensure that there isn’t the adhoc bunching of series with 18 month “seasons”, followed by 6 month breaks, which are then filled with off shore games.

Clearly, this has to be the most pressing need of the board, in addition (and possibly allied to) the revamp of domestic cricket. This would be a worthy fight for Mr. Modi to wage. Without this, every captain (or in some cases, the same captain every few years), will continue to complain, with undeniable merit, that the cricket schedule is too cluttered.