Should IPL and club cricket be only reserved for youngsters?

One of the main reason for the debacle of our Indian cricket team in England can be attributed to the tough cricket schedule. We should consider the fact that all of our cricketers are mortal and human beings, but not machines. Take Sehwag for example, he went for a surgery only after Delhi Daredevils were virtually out of the tournament. Gautam was not told about his injury and KKR physio kept him in the dark about his injury. Zaheer was taken to the tour without given adequate attention to his injury (although he missed out the West Indies tour). I don’t exactly remember how many players went in and out of England’s tour without injury. But hats off to Ishant Sharma who has chosen country over club; he will be going for surgery after Australia tour which will require him to miss the IPL.

Main man Sachin Tendulkar rarely plays in ODI’s. The last full series he played was against South Africa in India, where he scored double hundred (excluding the World Cup). It is high time now, he must hang up his boots and not block space of young talents, we have already seen two decades of sachin as a cricketer. Other youngsters are getting older, day by day.

As we know IPL is a platform for young talents to excel on international stage, examples can be found in Ravindra jadeja, Virath Kohli, Manoj Tiwarey, Varun Aaron, Parthiv Patel, etc. It was due to their IPL performance’s that they were considered for selection for the Indian team. And not to forget some former talents also knocked the doors of selectors, with the likes of Ashish Nehra and Amit Mishra. Ashish has had wonderful comeback to the national side, and was instrumental in semi final victory over Paksitan in the world cup, on the other hand Amit Mishra has been key leg spinner, although he should have been included in the World Cup squad in place of Piyush Chawla. His successful West Indies tour will help his international carrier to flourish more.

Recently T20 champions league has started, I want to know how many days of rest has been given to the players? They just got back from a torrid tour of England and MS Dhoni has already stated “we have seen ugly side of cricket also”. I hope Gautam is given more time for recovery as he is suffering from concussion , since it can be career threatening, as it would be difficult for him to judge the line of the ball. Being a sportsperson myself, I know some of the players who have hung their boots due to this injury.

Since the world cup has concluded, South Africa have given their players adequate rest, they only played in the IPL. The BCCI should learn from them, about how the players are managed. To get maximum out of them I urge BCCI to give them an adequate time for players to rest and recoup.