West Zone hammered South Zone by 192 runs in their final league match to celebrate their first Deodhar Trophy One Day Tournament victory since 1991. The Deodhar Trophy is the Zonal One Day league, with the team at the top of the table at the end of the league fixtures being awarded the title. This caps a brilliant season for Amol Muzumdar – the West Zone captain, after his Mumbai side’s terrific come from behind Ranji Trophy victory. West Zone remained unbeaten in the tournament, chasing competently (234 and 253) and defending totals with aplomb (conceded 134 all out and 116 all out).
This result is however difficult to assess, because the scratch combinations that are created – picking and choosing an eleven from a zone, result in matches which are largely selection matches. While these have their merits, the Challenger Trophy has been designed for this express purpose. The Deodhar Trophy lies somewhere in between the Ranji ODI tournament and the Challenger Tournament, in terms of the type of team which participates in it. West Zone were playing at home this year, as the tournament was played at Brabourne Stadium at Churchgate, Mumbai. That further queers the pitch for the competition. It is hard to say whether home advantage may have played a huge role in West Zone’s success, but being used to the ground and knowing the conditions, especially under lights, must have resulted in some advantage.
The domestic season is now complete – with 2 first class tournaments and 3 ODI tournaments, in addition to the season opening Irani Trophy. Robin Uthappa and Ranadeb Bose were the stand out performers in the first class season and must be on the fringes of the selection for the Test tour of England in July-August. Manoj Tiwary of Bengal was the other player who gave a superb account of himself – however, with the Test Match middle order not short of candidates, especially with Yuvraj returning to full fitness and Ganguly making a superb comeback in South Africa, Tiwary may have a wait a little longer. The uncertainty with regard to Sehwag may prompt the selectors to pick the extra opener for the tour.
With all the attention focussed on the World Cup, important work remains to be completed back in India – the domestic season needs to be revamped, with the Ranji Trophy format likely to see some fundamental change. This is where the foundations for future World Cup and Test tour campaigns will be laid, and a domestic season which is rigorous and provides plenty of scope for high quality competition (maximising participation from Test players) will go a long way in providing a steady stream of talent which will not only keep the Test players on their toes, but will also allow India to stay competitive when some of the linchpins get injured. It is vital to the Greg Chappell focus on player development.
If the Ganguly era was the personality driven first generation of the national teams revival, and the Dravid era is to be the process driven second generation, then a revival of the profile of Domestic Cricket, even if it isnt to the days when the Ranji final was watched by full houses must be the next generation of reform which will strengthen the core of India’s cricket. The opportunity to host the 2011 World Cup, allied with Delhi’s successful bid to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games will hopefully mark a fourth generation involving massive development of sporting infrastructure. As the preeminent sport in India, Cricket must take a lead role here. One only hopes that these ambitions of continuous development are not mired in the last generations penchant for bureaucratic lethargy.
The national cricket team (even if it is technically the BCCI XI, i think it is Ok to dispense with the pedantry and claim it as our own) thus has a larger role to play in the development of sport than one might think.
I hope they do well, and i hope the right lessons are learnt from their efforts. If they are not, then the pride demonstrated by the Amol Muzumdars of our Cricket will be in vain.
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