Wake up, BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) has often found itself in the middle of many controversies. The main point of contention has been the management of some important things that are required for Indian Cricket to grow. For quite sometime now, BCCI has lacked in taking some serious decisions for the welfare of Indian Cricket in both domestic as well as international circuit and that has lead to some serious losses . So to understand these problems and their solutions, lets take a look at the 5 things that will give us a clear picture of the current scenario:


1. EFFICIENT PLANNING FOR OVERSEAS TOURS




The eight-nil beating that India suffered at the hands of Australia and England in 2011-12 can’t only be attributed to the poor play by the players but also to the poor tour scheduling by the BCCI. There was hardly any match practice for the players before the actual series. Even the planning for some tours hasn’t also been that great by them. Shortly after India played a full series in England in 2011, the former had to play an “illogically proposed” five match ODI series against the latter on their backyard. The case of also proposing a series against Windies in 2013 just before the South African tour did harm the team a lot as they went into the ODI’s(against South Africa) without any match practice and lost quite comprehensively. These are surely not good stats to be looked at.

In preparing for a battle, planning is indispensable“. So, from now BCCI should follow this quote and propose the tours intelligently on regular basis so that each and every player can have a feel of the conditions before the main series starts. The case of sending the team to England early this time has been a good move but a move can only become great if it is done on a regular basis.

2. STOP FAVORITISM




This negative concept has played a big role in team selection for quite sometime now. There are some players in the current squad who have’t performed upto the expectation level but are still being persisted with just because of this concept and some blind backing. These things may not actually come out in public but this tends to happen. Just because of it, the players of great caliber such as Subramaniam Badrinath, Robin Bisht haven’t got proper chances to establish themselves. BCCI’s case of not selecting the highest Ranji scorer of season 2013, Kedhar Jadhav for England tour has also been very perplexing. If he isn’t selected even after scoring 1269 runs, then I seriously don’t understand that what all will he have to do to make a case for himself. Even Pankaj Singh should have been given a chance much earlier then the England tour.

I think the time has come that BCCI should and must avoid politics in the selection of a deserving local player and should give them more backing that yes he can deliver for the team. Its high time that the praises from the Gavaskars, Dhonis about the talent a player possesses should get unheard and focus should be shifted towards the merit-based selection so that each and every deserving player gets a chance to prove his mettle.

3. IMPROVE THE “TRACK” PROCESS

This point has been raised for quite sometime now. Some tracks have been improved and the Chennai and Delhi are the best examples of the improvement of the track process. But still there is a lot of work to be done. The tracks in Gwalior, Indore, Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Nagpur are still flat. The Ahmedabad track is a bit slow but it doesn’t offer much to the bowlers. So seeing the fact that still there are around 5-6 flat tracks, BCCI should and must prepare some bouncy tracks that fosters the fast bowlers and the spinners especially the wrist ones. Clay soil which is used in Australia for cricket wickets are black earths that should be used to enhance the quality of these tracks. Its quite easy to blame that the current pacers and spinners in the Indian team flop abroad but the real question is that do they get suitable tracks during the Ranji matches or normal practice that can help them to perform well abroad? The answer to this is a clear No.

BCCI should look into this matter seriously and prepare some more sporty tracks like in Mumbai, Mohali so that the actual adaptation on playing on overseas tracks can be done here only.

4. MAKE THE DOMESTIC T20 TOURNAMENT LIKE AN INTERNATIONAL ONE

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: The most underrated tournament in Indian Cricket. This tournament is very much underrated because of IPL. Because of the jam-packed international calendar and especially IPL, its obvious that the international players won’t participate in it. But, this is an Indian T20 tournament then BCCI should manage the international commitments smartly. Through IPL we have seen some young guns come up. But through this tournament, we’ll see more number of them come up. And this can only happen if the international players participate in it. This will not only help the youngsters to play around them, but will also boost their confidence a lot when they play under a captain like MS Dhoni or Virat Kohli. The commentators(Indian Internationals) would also get tempted to commentate in such a tournament. BCCI can also announce prizes for different things like it happens in the IPL so that it will keep the players motivated. If these steps are taken, then this tournament will definitely gain more popularity.

5. FOLLOW THE POLICY OF ‘CTC’

CTC stands for College to Cricket. It should act as talent development center and work in an institutional manner where legend players can shape up new talents. It can have departments like bowling experts, batting experts, fielding experts, umpire development centers and technical experts who understand new changes in the technological advancements of the game. These colleges should act as “Temples of Cricket” where talent of rare quality can be produced and should also act as a medium for the cricket fans where it can easily connect them to their favorite game.

We have seen that Mumbai Rizvi College, DAV College Chandigarh and Delhi’s RLA College provide a great platform to the players such as KL Rahul and Manan Vohra to get noticed for the Ranji Trophy. If BCCI can support other colleges to step up like above mentioned ones, then I’m pretty sure in the near future we’ll see some serious talents come up in all departments and make a case for themselves to play for their country.

By

Sidharth Gulati

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