BOMBAY, 7 December — One is not too sure what the reaction of the Indian players would have been on reading in the papers that a triangular tournament is being planned in Bangladesh from Jan. 1 to 15. The England team returns home for Christmas and New Year after playing the three-Test series and then comes back to India around the middle of January to play five one-day matches and then goes on to New Zealand for the Tests and one-day series there. Whether it was the ECB or the players themselves, that ensured the team would get to spend Christmas and New Year with their families does not matter, but the fact that the administrators at least in England are aware that players are human and need breaks and time to spend the festival-time with their near and dear ones is good to know.
Here in India, players are obviously of no consequence for where is the need to play a triangular when the players could have been given a break not only to recharge their batteries but to spend quality time with their families. Have a look at the schedule they have had and the program ahead and you be the judge whether a hurriedly organized triangular is really needed at this time. The last season 2000-01 began with India playing the ICC Knockout, then going to Sharjah and then playing Zimbabwe at home followed by the series against Australia. Then they had a very short break after which they went to Zimbabwe and within a week after their return they went to Sri Lanka and hardly a week after that they were on the plane to South Africa. They returned from South Africa Friday morning and on Monday they were playing England in the first Test and this is to be followed by two Tests. One would have thought that is enough cricket but no, the administrators are talking about a triangular with Pakistan and Bangladesh from Jan. 1 which means the players get barely a week off before they go to participate in a meaningless event and then a few days later they play England in the one-dayers.
It is not finished by any measure for there is Zimbabwe, obviously the new favorites, for they come back within 15 months for another two Tests and five one-dayers and even as they leave the country, our players will jet out to the West Indies where they are scheduled to play five Tests and seven one-dayers and barely two weeks after their return from the Caribbean Isles, the team goes to England to play Tests and a triangular with Sri Lanka as the third team. So when there was a chance to give them a break between the Tests against England now and the one-dayers next month, why pray go and participate in a tournament?
One can even understand if the Indian board says to Ganguly, Tendulkar, Srinath, Kumble and Harbhajan that they need not participate in this triangular and they would be compensated for that but is that going to happen? More crucially, are these players going to have the courage to tell the board that they will not go to Bangladesh? To their credit, the players did convey their reluctance to go to Australia between the Sri Lankan tour and the South African tour and that one-day series in an indoor stadium was canceled also because prominent Australian players like Steve Waugh, Shane Warne and McGrath were not available. The senior Indian players will have to do the same this time and put their foot down and tell the Board they are not machines and even machines need to be recharged and they need the rest and the time to be with their families. This insane desire to use every little gap to play in a tournament has to be stopped. Domestic cricket is also the sufferer with this kind of a schedule for the star players are not available to play in the domestic competitions.
Perhaps the players may be spared for the government is more likely to rule out playing in a tournament which also has Pakistan in it, if it is to be a consistent policy and certainly nothing has happened in the past few months for the government to change its thinking. But whether the government clears the tournament or not, it is about time the Indian board started thinking in the players’ interest and not their own and ensure they do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Make no mistake, though the game has a fanatical following in the country, the support wanes when the team is doing badly and losing and there is more chance of the team not doing well when they are tired and jaded both physically and mentally, and looking at the program they have had for more than a year and the year ahead there are bound to be players who are going to be in no condition to perform at their best.
The injury to Tendulkar which ruled him out of the Sri Lanka tour and spelt ruin to the TV companies shows that it is better to cut down on the schedule rather than increasing it mindlessly.
All the academies in the world, all the planning will come to nothing unless the domestic structure is strengthened and the one sure way of making it competitive is to have the international stars playing in the first-class competitions and the one way to ensure their participation is to see that there is a proper balance between international tours to and from the country so that domestic competitions do not get devalued. That should be priority number one for India and not trying to help another country! (Professional Management Group)
