Bring back the sanity to Indian cricket

2013 will perhaps be the most decisive year for Indian cricket and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, if they have any plans for succeeding in 2015 World Cup in Australia and the T20 World Cup before that. India’s has a whole lot of talent but the execution has been totally bizarre. Blame it on a tight back-to-back schedule. But blame it more on the unforgivably long Indian Premier League.

Not that it’s against any particular format of the game but there has to be some basic level of execution standards maintained. Australia and England have a domestic T20 league but their batsmen have been able to adapt to all 3 formats of the game. Root (England), Forrest, Ed Cowan, David Warner (Australia), Peterson, Morkel, Steyn (South Africa) have taken the charge and have been equally effective in all three formats.

India on the other hand have completely lost the plot with respect to that. It is fine to have three different teams for all 3 formats of the game but then it has to begin now. People should not be lured into IPL. International regulars should not be play the whole tournament.

The IPL has a separate window, one that is bigger that the Big Bash league even, which is played over a shorter duration. In my opinon, it has to come down to 3 weeks. You cannot drain out your best international regulars and send them on a tour right after it. You cannot win a World Cup and start playing IPL after it. It’s physically and a psychologically drains you.

It can be played with a fewer stars but that would obviously have it’s repercussions. The organizers cannot stand empty houses, which either way wont be the case then they for sure need to make the duration way shorter. Moreover IPL has a summer start in India and that can have drastic effect to the fitness of the players and in the longer run it shall reduce the longevity of careers. Players in their 30′s will start to struggle. Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer are good examples, they have become injury prone and inconsistent.

Emulating the club model like football, baseball is fine provided you have limited international commitments but you surely cannot do both. For players are losing their technique and their patience to hold their wicket at the crease for hours is a concept of the past. How is that going to make India a good Test playing nation.

With Australia coming to India and then India travelling to South Africa late this year don’t be surprised if there is another whitewash on the cards. Well Dhoni should not be blamed for it. He is just doing his job and respecting his contract. It’s the cricketers who not interested any more, they just want to attend parties and make more money.

Let’s hope for some good changes by the BCCI to help preserve the charm of the game.