BOMBAY, 8 February — The Indian cricket board need to be complimented for changing the dates of the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy so as to enable all the players doing duty for India in the one-day series to be available for their respective state teams. Considering that Zimbabwe come over to play Tests and a one-day series from the middle of February, it gives the players time to find form and also get their mental make-up from the limited overs format to the longer version of the game. It is never easy to switch on and off from one format of the game to the other and a competitive first-class game will definitely help players to once again think and actually play a long innings and have a spell longer than ten overs which is the limitation in one-dayers. The question of course is how many of the superstars will condescend to play in the Ranji Trophy. But even if they don’t, at least all the other fringe players and those not established in the India team will no doubt want to seize the opportunity to try and make sure their place is maintained. They are aware that they need just one performance and not consistency to keep their places and that once in the side, they will not be dropped even if the selectors meet after every game.
They have watched three games out of the four played at the time of writing this column, but have made only one change when they dropped VVS Laxman while a couple of others who should have been left out have managed to keep their places. Even VVS Laxman would not have been dropped but for the fact that Matthew Hayden was dropped by the Australian selectors from the one-day squad after a couple of failures. With that example in front of them the selectors promptly dropped Laxman who was getting at least the 20s and 30s and retained others who were getting only ten and fifteen and that too in spite of dropped chances early in their ten and fifteen run knocks.
Unfortunately, we in India tend to look for another Sachin Tendulkar who made his international debut at the tender age of 16 years. However, what we forget is that Tendulkar had four centuries in four matches and against good opposition that got him the promotion to the international ranks. The other youngsters do not have four centuries in 40 matches yet are being given India caps simply because they belong to the under-19 team that won the World Cup. We have to thus ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated and let the youngsters from this under-19 team play and do well in first-class cricket before giving them the India caps, for it is only when they feel the confidence of having done well at the first-class level, will they get the confidence of doing well at the international level.
Trying to rush players into big time when they are not ready will lose us more talented cricketers than gain us long serving ones. Just because Sachin Tendulkar came good at 16 does not mean that every teenager is going to do well at a similar age. In fact the experience with the last under-19 team players promoted to international status and their failure should serve as a warning not to make haste but wait for them to mature with the experience of a few seasons of domestic cricket. They have age on their side so they can afford to wait till they themselves are confident of doing well at the next higher grade.
Speaking of grades a lot of the stadiums in India need to have a serious look at the facilities that they offer to the spectators who have to sit through seven to eight hours of the game with minimum amenities. Due to security reasons they are not allowed to bring water or food into the ground, so the least the associations should be doing is to provide them with water and food at a nominal charge, but the spectators get fleeced by the vendors who knowing that they (spectators) have nowhere to go, charge two to three times the normal price. As it is tickets are not cheap so a family of four wanting to go and watch a match is paying a lot, and then to have the kind of food and water at that price is adding to their burden. Not only that, the toilet and washroom facilities are so badly kept and maintained that any self-respecting municipal officer would have them off limits for hygiene reasons.
What good is spending all this huge amount on floodlights and scoreboards when the average spectator has to suffer in the manner he has to? None of the administrators ever sit in those stands nor queue up to get in, so they have no idea of how much the spectator has to put up with just to see a days game of cricket. Why even if they go on a non-match day and see for themselves the lack of facilities for the common man, their eyes will be opened to the discomfort that the average spectator suffers. But then they know that it is not the average spectator who votes them into their seats of comfort. If only he could, then not only Indian cricket but Indian sport would be better administered. (Professional Management Group)
