The sorry state of Indian domestic cricket

The post-mortem of India’s shameful exit from the 2007 world cup continues. One argument doing the rounds is a move to revamp the domestic structure, basing it more on the lines of the Australian model. It will involve greater participation of the international stars, thereby ensuring that, the domestic fare is closer to international standards. This system has multiple benefits.

• As domestic cricket toughens up, the men will be separated from the boys at the national level. And rather than becoming one match wonders , future players will be better prepared for international cricket , both mentally and skill-wise
• No national star will be able to take their place for granted, and will be under constant pressure to perform and justify his selection, on current form.
• The coverage of domestic cricket will improve, and the Indian public will be seeing more of it. Thus, the performance of our regionally focused selectors will also come in for greater scrutiny, improving the quality of the selection process
  

A recent fixture of the Premier Cup (don’t be surprised, if you haven’t heard about it. You are part of a 90% majority of Indian cricket fans) highlights all that is wrong with domestic cricket.

The Premier Cup, by the way, is the one day equivalent of the Ranji Trophy and was televised live on Neo Sports. No sharing of feed with DD this time. They were given complete exclusivity, ostensibly because, there was no national importance attached to this game. The tournament was scheduled conveniently to clash with the World Cup, and our national heroes were spared the trouble of coming up with creative excuses to give it a slip. Bravo BCCI.

Now about the game - a mouth watering semi-final clash between Mumbai and UP. Two heavyweights of the domestic game, featuring numerous national discards ( Romesh Powar, Mohd Kaif, RP Singh , Wasim Jaffer, Piyush Chawla, Avishkar Salvi ), a future star in Rohit Sharma ,and long forgotten Amol Majumdar and Shalabh Srivastav. The last named was the highest wicket taker in the 2000 junior world cup, won by India. A notable absentee was Suresh Raina, a man whose absence in the Caribbean, was cited by Greg Chappell, as the main reason for India’s poor performance.

UP batted first and scored 224/6 in 50 overs. Mumbai lost Jaffer for a duck, but recovered though, a second wicket stand of 105, between opener Rahane and Powar, who smashed a run a-ball 61. Just when, Mumbai were running away with the match, Piyush Chawla bought UP back in the game, taking 4 for 31. The match was tantalizingly poised with Mumbai needing 10 of 18 balls, with Rohit Sharma (18* off 30 balls) and fast bowler Usman Malvi at the crease. The onus was on protecting wickets, and faced with a low asking rate, Rohit was expected to comfortably carry Mumbai home.

Off the second ball, he tried to clear the mid –on fielder for a boundary, failed, and was caught easily. Clearly, the pressure got to him. It’s not the end of the world for him, but it shows a serious lack of judgment and shortage of mental fortitude. Sadly, there were no selectors on view to notice this. They will see him score a century against Tripura (no offence meant) and put him in the national team. No wonder Mohinder Amarnath called them a bunch of jokers.

Salvi was next, and the two fast bowlers, kept Mumbai alive, scampering for 3 singles in the over .Kaif bought on RP Singh for the penultimate over. Surely, the UP captain had his best man for the job. Singh’s effort, however, was shoddy, as he bowled two no balls, leaving Kaif grimacing at mid wicket. He continued to be wayward, conceding 6 runs in the over and gifting Mumbai the match on a platter. There is no place for such undisciplined cricketers in modern cricket, but trust me; people will clamor for his inclusion in the side for Bangladesh. The same people, who haven’t seen him, bowl these no-balls.

This is the sorry state of our domestic cricket. Just having an Australian coach will not make us as good as the Aussies. We need to have an Australian system as well.

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