Indian Cricket – Not as rosy as it appears

The Indian cricket team has had a wonderful last few weeks. The Men in Blue have not only won matches, they have done so with sheer dominance. Dhoni’s staggeringly impressive CV now lists out the Champions Trophy as well. But there are a few issues still unresolved. While the team has certainly earned the right to bask in their new-found glory, it is difficult to forget that this is a team still reeling under the humiliation of their last two overseas Test ventures – the disastrous tours to England and Australia. However, BCCI’s total indifference towards the grim situation is more disappointing than the actual losses.

There have been few batsmen more prolific and more consistent than Abhinav Mukund in the Ranji Trophy. After about four years of match winning performances for Tamil Nadu, he was finally rewarded with a seat on the plane to West Indies in 2011. A month later, he found himself travelling to England. However, the bowler friendly conditions made him look more out of place than a fish on a tree. His supposedly unbreakable technique seemed to have deserted him, and anyone who didn’t follow Indian cricket closely would have found it easier to believe that India had won the football World Cup than the fact that Mukund had successfully accumulated almost six thousand runs in first class cricket.

But is Mukund really to blame? After all, a player is a product of the environment he grows up in. Mukund, like all Indian batsmen, had grown up playing on batting beauties – on tracks where the ball rarely rose above waist level. Isn’t it unrealistic to expect him to conquer the demons on the bouncy tracks of England or New Zealand? Pitches in India are almost always batsman friendly – bowlers are mere participants, not competitors.

Abhinav Mukund looked unconvincing in English conditions.

Recently, Cricket Australia, following an extended run of shabby pitches at Hobart, decided that enough was enough. To maximize the prospects of preparation of lively and sporting wickets, they decided to dock points from the host team if an under-prepared pitch was presented for a game. BCCI’s Technical Committee, then led by Sourav Ganguly, followed suit, and proposed a weaker version of the same law. The Grounds and Pitches Committee were made accountable for all the pitches all over the nation, and that has, albeit at snail’s pace, improved the quality of pitches to a slight extent. While the law may solve the problem of Indian batsmen being dubbed as one dimensional flat-track bullies, it still would certainly not address the greater concerns of exposing our Indian cricketers to the varying, unforgiving environments in other cricket playing nations across the globe.

The MRF pace foundation is certainly a start. This Chennai based centre has four different types of surfaces: surfaces designed to match the bouncy tracks of Australia and New Zealand, the seaming pitches in England and South Africa, the spinner friendly dust-bowls in the subcontinent, as well as the dry, flat tracks in the Caribbean Islands. It is the dream academy for any budding pacer in the country. But is it really the ultimate solution to all our bowling woes? Can the foundation consistently produce one world class bowler after another?

Prior to any international tour, or any home series, the Indian Team follows a predictable routine – they land in Bangalore and spend about a week and a half training at the National Cricket Academy. The NCA is undoubtedly a world class centre – it unfailingly provides an abundance of facilities, catering to the needs of each and every player. There is a reason why the NCA is in Bangalore – it is because the Garden City boasts of the best weather in the country. But that is precisely what causes the downfall of the team. However hard they try, neither the NCA nor the MRF foundation can replicate the near zero temperatures of England, or the searing dry heat of West Indies.

The NCA in Bangalore plays host to most of the pre-tour preparations

Therefore, it isn’t rocket science to decipher why the Indian Team constantly struggle in England – it is the ungodly amalgamation of freezing weather and seaming pitches (the pitches in 2013 Champions Trophy not quite having the same look) – a vicious combination that is almost unattainable in India. But we can try. We must try. Instead of taking the easy way out and conveniently visiting the NCA for the pre-tour preparations, the team must train in a place as close to English conditions as possible – a place like Dharmasala. The quaint little town in Himachal Pradesh has a perfectly good stadium, and the BCCI can certainly afford to drop a few coins to ensure that all facilities needed for a conditioning camp are taken care of.

Similarly, a tour to Sri Lanka must be preceded by rigorous training sessions in the perennially humid climate of Chennai. Before touring West Indies, the Indian Team must acclimatize by logging in the hours in Jaipur – practising in the dry and hot conditions would certainly better their chances in the Caribbean. Obviously, the NCA cannot be the solution to all problems, and the BCCI must begin to look beyond it. The BCCI must ensure that the highest levels of facilities and amenities are available at every stadium in the country, so that Team India has a wide range of training options to choose from before they embark on any challenging international tour.

Also, every cricketer showing even the slightest hint of promise must be groomed extensively. Extensive grooming isn’t complete until and unless one is exposed to as many different playing conditions as possible – this can effortlessly be achieved by playing local matches at neutral venues, rather than home and away games. Another advantage of playing at neutral venues is that if the training facilities are up to the mark, with every venue having a variety of pitches, then each and every player would experience an encompassing range of playing conditions due to the colossal differences in climatic conditions in a land as vast as India. The importance of practising on cement tracks cannot be downplayed – it is the easiest method to produce a fast bouncy track independent of the external conditions.

Following a stressful hamstring injury and a treacherous run of form, Zaheer Khan was a broken man. After carefully assessing all his options, he opted for a county stint with Worcestershire, which went on to transform his career. “When you are at home, you are taken care of. But when you play in county cricket, you have to do everything yourself and still be prepared for the game. That brings in a great sense of professionalism and independence. It was the greatest learning curve of my life.” he said. Zaheer isn’t the only one. Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble and Ganguly are all advocates of county cricket. The BCCI must do everything in its capacity to encourage promising youngsters to play in such alien conditions. Be it the first, second, or third division teams, the BCCI must contact counties and introduce them to deserving players. It would be a win-win situation – counties in need of players would get exceptionally gifted individuals possessing an insatiable thirst for experience.

The BCCI made all the right noises when they gave the Technical Committee and the Grounds and Pitches Committee greater powers. They have certainly displayed intent and initiative – but the execution and implementation is a different story altogether. India is a land of one billion people – there is no dearth of talent. The BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world. It is high time the BCCI used it to their advantage. India may have won the Champions Trophy, but they are rarely half as convincing in Test cricket abroad – the BCCI must take this disturbing issue into their hands.