Beyond the Blues

The fast bowlers had made early inroads and the opposition seemed to be on the mat. The batting was in pieces when the middle and the lower middle-order geared up and pulled their team back into the match. Just when they seemed to be cruising, the bowling side came back with a couple of crucial breakthroughs, giving their team the leeway to perhaps steer the game. More often than not, such a spin-off comes up around the 80th over just when the fielding side decides to take the second new ball.

Subsequently, it is this new ball that decides the face of the scorecard for the team batting first, for the wickets taken by it is what seals the innings. What happens in successive innings’ can undoubtedly be presumed.

This is the story of a typical Duleep Trophy game.

A bulk of the Ranji Trophy matches played this season were neither won nor lost, they were drawn. So much so, that only one outright win was enough to take Mumbai into the finals this season. The loop holes in the points system, perhaps, gave Mumbai the leeway to not force the issue and hence find their way through.

The BCCI’s scheme of granting one bonus point for every outright win with ten wickets or an innings could prove to be a good attempt in taking things forward. The plan, in fact secured Delhi its place in the Ranji knock-outs. Yet, most teams are not willing to go that extra yard. After all, taking twenty wickets is quite a task, which requires both quality and physical strength amongst the bowlers.

Perhaps, it’s time to give the Ranji Trophy a facelift and make the ‘system’ and the approach a lot more exciting. How about making the first-innings lead not as significant in the scheme of things? How about giving teams a substantial initiative for winning the game?

Yuvraj Singh has been replaced by Kumar Sangakkara for the top job of Kings XI Punjab for IPL 3. Some may call it a wise decision to ease off Yuvi from the responsibility of leading the side, which, in turn, may result in him prospering as a player. Some (the right wing people) may take it otherwise – “Alas! Yet another ‘essentially-Indian’ Premier League team is to be led by a non-Indian.”

Well, to the detriment of camping with the rightist, I’d insist that perhaps, for once, the wing might just have a point there. My endorsement of it though is based purely on reasons Greek to them. Of course, unlike them, I’m talking cricket.

Now don’t they say – “When in Rome, do as the Romans do!” Let’s face it – a) seven out of 11 playing members of any given IPL team are Indians, b) The setup, right from the board, management and the owner(s) are all Indians, c) Spectators/viewers are also mostly Indians. One certainly needs to understand the dynamics of the IPL. While it boasts of a popular lineup of reputed players, it also proves to be a Mecca for domestic players waiting in the wings to make their big International debut of sorts. Playing along side their Indian idols means a world to them and trust me on this; they would go through a wall for them.

Six different trophies, three different formats, all crammed up into a five- month window - India’s domestic season runs at a breakneck speed. To make matters a wee bit tougher for the players, only a three-day breather is granted between first-class matches (in the league phase) and even lesser between the shorter formats.

Perhaps, one wouldn’t have whined over this ‘cricket congestion’ if it had served the purpose it had accidentally set for itself. One would assume that a choc-a-block schedule like this, might amount to teams and players getting a lot more games to showcase their talent. Unfortunately though, this isn’t exactly how it transpires on the ground.

Would you believe if I were to tell you that quite a few teams/players play only five first-class matches in these five months - a match a month? And those five matches get over in five straight weeks. All hell would break loose if one gets injured or goes out of form during these five weeks. There’s hardly any scope of recuperating from an injury or regaining form in such a short time. Odds often stack up when time runs out.

Not even a single Ranji Trophy quarter-final match produced an outright win. All winners were decided on the basis of the first-innings lead. This happened primarily because there wasn’t enough time to go for an outright win and also there was no intention to force the result.

Neutral Curators = A good batting surface The BCCI did the right thing by appointing neutral curators for the knock-out matches. It was the second best thing after hosting the matches on neutral venues. Yet, the curators only get a few days to prepare the track as the venues depend on the teams qualifying. All that they can do is to not allow the hosts to prepare a track which suits their needs. For example, they would not leave too much grass to assist the quick bowlers or an underprepared wicket to suit the spinners. But that invariably results in preparing a good batting surface. And in any case it’s unfair to expect a miracle in four-five days of preparation. You can’t change the nature of a particular track overnight.

Four days not enough Only the teams which are in good form (both batting and bowling) make it to the last eight. It is rather difficult to take 20 wickets of the team in good form on a good batting surface. WV Raman, the coach of Tamil Nadu team was quoted saying, ‘from here onwards (quarter-finals) the teams batting well will win the trophy’. And he was correct in his assessment. Teams go into the match with the intention of batting-out the opposition. Since an outright win isn’t necessary to go to the next round, the focus is on batting for as long as possible. Teams rarely worry about the scoring rate, which at times, makes the game boring to watch. But you cannot blame the teams for that approach either. The game gets over as soon as one team gets first-innings lead however slender it might be. Imagine a team getting a five runs first-innings lead!! Falling short by a few runs doesn’t mean that the opposition was superior or your team was outplayed.

Dear friends,

Till a few years ago, the knock-out matches of the Ranji Trophy were held on an home-and-away basis. Teams hosting the match had two major advantages. Preparing the pitch was their prerogative and they had the support of the home crowd. Those were days when people turned up in big numbers to watch a first-class game. And if that game happened to be between Mumbai and Delhi with all the big players available, the atmosphere would match up to an international game, or so I’m told.

Gradually the crowds starting dwindling and the home teams abused their right to prepare the track. They started preparing tracks to suit their strengths without keeping the larger interest of the game in mind. A spin-heavy attack would prepare a dustbowl to have an upper hand; similarly the team which was banking on their batsmen to win the game, started dishing out feather beds. A first-innings lead was enough to decide the winner and they were under no pressure to prepare tracks which would produce results.

The BCCI tried to counter this by appointing a chief curator to overlook the preparations. But that wasn’t enough because the chief curator didn’t have complete control over the ground staff. He would give suggestions which very few who would obey, especially when it meant putting their team in jeopardy.

Dear readers,

How many times have we sat in our drawing rooms and been irked by appalling umpiring decisions! You wouldn’t believe me then, if I were to tell you that, once upon a time in domestic cricket, the umpires used to be bullied by captains! Trust me, as blasphemous as this sounds, it is true. Indeed it was a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” situation. In those days, the quality of umpiring was judged by the "captain’s report". The report required captains to mark umpires on various performance parameters such as their control over the proceedings, their positioning, decisions etc. A lot of players knew the power at their disposal and used it to suit their needs. They would write favorable reports only if the umpires obliged on the field. Some even went to the extreme of letting the umpires know that their scores in the report would depend on their on-field decisions.

Thus came in the match referees to put an end to this underhand practice. The captains continued to write their report at the end of the match though it wasn’t the final word on the umpiring anymore. All was not bad with the captain’s report. Firstly, not everyone was bullying the umpires and secondly, all umpires were not bad and hence didn’t give in to such pressures. The report also kept the players involved and allowed them to write their comments in case something went extremely wrong. It was followed up by annual meetings of captains with board officials. This provided an opportunity for the players to air their views and for the board to get first-hand information on what was ailing domestic cricket and how to work towards improving it.

Dear readers,

Isn’t it a pity that there weren’t even 100 people at the ground to watch Rahul Dravid bat during Karnataka’s match against Delhi? Well, enough has been written and talked about the interest a domestic game generates or the lack of it. Not many people turn up to watch a Ranji game despite some of the international players playing and more importantly representing their own state which I guess should mean something. After all we see fierce loyalty by the same people towards their team during the IPL.

What needs to be done?
We have seen that free entry into the stadium isn’t translating into numbers and hence a different, more aggressive approach is required. It starts from publicising using different mediums and radio seems to be the easiest and cheapest way of spreading the word. The domestic matches, at least in the games where international players are available, should be built into personal clashes.

Hi guys,