Are we playing too much cricket?

Expectedly, when India won the Test at Mohali, there was much joy and celebration. Winning matters, and there is no better feeling, no better pick-up drug than this. For a while, everyone sat around enjoying the moment but it was not long before practical thoughts re-entered the minds of players. The match ended in mid-afternoon on Day Four, the early finish opened up interesting possibilities of leaving for home, and suddenly the most sought after man in the Indian dressing room was the travel agent. With four clear days before the next game players wanted to reacquaint themselves with their families before returning to the battle for the next match.

Sachin, a young father, (his second child Arjun is not yet two) was particularly desperate to reach Mumbai. To do this he drove five hours to Delhi the same evening, took the last flight out and succeeded in hitting his bed in Bandra past one in the morning. The frantic travel, though tiring, posed no problem to him. This is a bonus, he said. It is great to spend some extra days at home.

This tendency to take off is understandable because the Indian team is in a constant spin, it plays every other day, players live out of suitcases for long periods. After a three-month tour to South Africa the stressed out players had just enough time to drop their bags home before heading for the next Test match. Said a player, after an unsatisfactory hit in the nets at Chandigarh, "I am trying to concentrate but I am still jetlagged. I can barely see the ball. It is pretty crazy."

Though it appears disorganised and unplanned, there is a method in the madness. International sport is driven by economics, demand and supply are determining factors, each sport has its own momentum and its peculiar dynamics. In the world market, Indian cricket is a precious product and as everybody manages more, so everybody gets more.

In this commercial khel, all players (sponsors, organisers, TV networks, cricketers) are beneficiaries, everyone has a stake in more cricket. Some people project the key players - the cricketers - as victims of this relentless system but that is an incorrect position because they need to earn a living by using the system in the short span they are at the crease. Fame and fortune do not last long and nobody makes money by sitting at home. So it is play, play and more play.

While there is reason, even an overwhelming compulsion, to have more cricket, it should not blind us to the dangers of excess. Tennis players and golfers play through the year and they travel much more but their schedules are scientific, with sensible gaps between important events. Contrast this with the Indian cricket team which zips around and even one free week, if available, is filled by some hastily organised game.

This impacts cricket in several ways as tired players struggle to cope with the punishing schedule. Excessive cricket kills enthusiasm, reduces players to zombies and, ultimately, lowers the quality of cricket. Fitness becomes a major issue and with increased physical strain, player breakdowns are more common. Indians anyway are not the strongest cricketers around, and while the bowlers suffered earlier (Srinath, Kumble) it is now the turn of stressed out batsmen (Ramesh, Badani, Tendulkar) to pull out due to injuries.

There are other serious repercussions as well. Non stop international cricket robs domestic cricket of interest, and with top players missing, there is little chance of standards picking up. This has a cascading effect as sponsors stay away and Ranji/Duleep slide into a downward curve which is difficult to arrest. With domestic cricket not improving in quality, cricket jobs have shrunk and corporates now are reluctant to hire cricketers. This is for two reasons: one - money is scarce, maintaining a cricket team of 15 is expensive; two - as players are busy with top cricket for long periods they don't play office games. The argument, therefore, is: if Sachin/Rahul/ Sourav won't play for the company team, why engage them?

Finding jobs is only one of the problems for players, more important is to radically change attitude. As cricket becomes more intense and competitive, adjustments in commitment and professionalism must keep pace. The game demands high fitness levels for which the presence of an expert trainer is vital, he is as crucial as the skilled coach. There is an urgent need to manage injuries, both for prevention and speedier recovery. All this, while appearing self evident, requires expertise, most of which is not available in India. That is why the Indian team engages foreigners and sends its injured players (even Nehra, Kartik, Dighe) abroad for treatment.

Confronted with these issues, the ideal solution would be to cut back cricket, restrict supply, provide breaks to jaded players. But this is unlikely to happen, the hectic pace of the game is a fact of life just as much as sharp practices in the field and deteriorating players' behaviour. India plays an awful lot of cricket but so do other countries, for everyone it is a constant circus, on throughout the year.

Essentially economic forces, decide the amount of cricket we get. Tomorrow, for whatever reason, if TV networks see a dip in viewership and failing ratings, the sponsorship support will slump, leading to an automatic cutback. But even within this financial prison there is some scope for greater sense because matches could be better scheduled and a balance struck between one-dayers and Tests. Mark Waugh and Sachin made their Test debuts around the same time but Waugh has already played about 120 Tests.

The selectors need to keep these ground realities in view while picking players, and protecting the tired and the injured for important battles. In this context, the rotation of players for different tournaments - backed up by contracts to ensure financial security - is not a welfare measure but an urgent need.