THE best cricketing news that has come out as this is being written is that India will not be participating in a triangular tournament in Bangladesh early next year. India is committed to helping the Bangladesh Cricket Board as it endeavours to make progress at the international level. But participating in a hurriedly organised tournament sandwiched between the Test series against England and the one-day Internationals against them was not going to be the best way to do things. It will benefit Bangladesh cricket more when an Indian team undertakes a proper Test and one-day tour there in the future. For, it has been seen that Bangladesh since its admission to the Test ranks has not been able to last the distance and playing one-day events is not going to help them to learn how to do so.
From the Indian point of view, too, the fact that the players get a break from international cricket and will be available to play some domestic matches is very good news indeed. Indian cricket has suffered because the mindless international schedule has devalued the domestic competitions and importantly not allowed a second string, that will challenge the first XI, to be built up. Thus complacency sets in and players are quite content to perform at an average level rather than at their best.
There are exceptions, of course, where players are keen and ambitious, but that is rare which is the pity. The participation of players like Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Srinath and Kumble will lift the domestic standard of competition and test the skills of batsmen and bowlers who confront them. Their participation will also create more interest for the spectators who have stayed away from domestic competition unless of course it's the finals or a game between two arch-rivals. Every zone has its own rivalry and this stems from the days when only one team qualified from each zone for the knock-out phase of the national championship for the Ranji Trophy.
In the West Zone it was Mumbai and Maharashtra, in the East it was Bengal and Bihar, in the Central Zone it was Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, in the North it was Delhi and Punjab and in the South it was Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Now, of course, there are other teams which have got better and are vying for a place in the knockout stages. But that has also been made easier by the fact that though the participating teams have remained more or less the same those allowed to qualify are now three instead of one and that does take away to a great extent the competitiveness in a zone. There is not much pressure when three out of five teams can qualify for the knock-out. So many teams can play much below their potential and still qualify which does not help to raise the standard of the game in the country.
In my first few years of Ranji cricket only one team from each zone qualified for the knockout stages of the championship. Mumbai's main rivals for qualifying were Maharashtra then and invariably the Mumbai-Maharashtra clash was a battle for the first innings lead and points, for that eventually made the difference between qualifying or not.
However, in 1971, due to pressure from teams that finished second, sometimes with just a point separating them from the number one team in the zone, the Board decided to have two teams qualifying for the knockout. At that stage there were not many teams who were really good enough to play at the highest levels. Thus many a knockout game between the winner of one zone and a team from another zone was a totally one-sided affair giving an indication of the difference in quality and standards in different zones. Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy for 15 consecutive years till Karnataka stopped them in the semi-finals in 1973-74 and went on to win the Ranji Trophy.
The Ranji Trophy has never been the exclusive property of any one team after that, which only goes to show how talent has spread around the country. Though talent may have spread, the standards haven't quite improved and in fact seem to have dropped off a bit. Today, there are as many as three teams from each zone qualifying for the final stages and some of them get beaten quite badly by the more established teams. This emphasises the fact that more qualifiers does not make for raising the standards of domestic cricket.
The Duleep Trophy used to be a knockout tournament to start with. But, it was made a league affair as it was felt that the knockout format was unfair to the players of weak zones like Central or East who after being beaten had to wait for a full year before playing in the tournament again. The change also enabled the players from weak zones to play against the international stars who came mainly from the other zones.
Even teams like Central and East, who were not strong earlier, have now produced players capable of playing at the international level though as teams they still seem to struggle against the other zones. The argument that only one or two points separate the teams at the zonal level and so three teams should continue to qualify is a hollow one. For, does not one run make a difference between scoring a century and being out at 99? Only century-makers get the accolades and not those who get out on 99. The Super League with three teams qualifying has not raised the standards. It has only enabled some players to phenomenally improve their individual career records against weak opposition.
Next season, 2002-3, there will be a two-tier Ranji Trophy with the top two teams of each zone making the top-tier and the third team the second tier. Hopefully, the scheduling will allow the international players to be available for the domestic tourneys and that will raise the competitive level considerably. Since there are also promotions and relegations teams can aspire to play in the higher tier and this by itself should heighten the level of play.
This is just one step. The other steps should be increasing the prize money and playing fees for all Ranji matches and Duleep games, preparing good wickets, providing good net facilities, appointing good physical trainers and putting a coaching system which does not confuse in place. But more importantly both the players and the administrators should have the interests of Indian cricket at heart. Will they cultivate this attitude?
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