BCCI's past is catching up with its players

SPECIAL COMMENT

Is the IPL proving to be party pooper? Is BCCI's highhandedness and strong arm tactics by crassly using its commercialpower finally costing Indian cricket? Are the reverberations going tobe felt by Indian cricketers? India has justascended the top of Test cricket's pyramid. And believe me, if thingsdon't work out, India will be at the top of this pile for a very shortwhile. With Cricket South Africa refusing to play Tests in Indiaduring its forthcoming tour, a heavy blow has been dealt to India'sgrowing aspirations to remain firmly ensconced at the top. On January2, India leaves for Bangladesh for a tri series featuring Sri Lankaalong with thehosts followed by two Tests - on January 17 at Chittagong and Dhaka onJanuary 24. Thereafter India has no Test matches to play for a long,long time. The next round of Test cricket was against South Africa - athree Test serieswhen South Africa began its tour on March 20. However, with CSA chiefGerald Majola saying that SA is scrapping the Test matches, India willhave no Test cricket for close to a year. Instead it will have the IPLseason 3 followed in rapid succession by the ICC T 20 World Cup inWest indies which gets underway on April 30, 2010. Other leadingteams, meanwhile will be playing a lot of Test cricket. Look at SouthAfrica, they will be engaged in a four Test match series againstEngland starting December 16, while Australia which is playing WestIndies in a three test series will then play another three Testsagainst Pakistan.
England travels to Bangladesh to play two Tests againstBangladesh while the Kiwis go across to play a Test series againstAustralia. Even Bangladesh and Pakistan play more Test cricket than usnext year. Bangladesh visit England for two Tests while Pakistancurrently playing in New Zealand will travel to England to play twoTests against Australia on neutral turf followed by four Tests againstEngland. Pakistan's tour of England to play Australia and the hostsends in late September. Pertinently, India's scheduling stinks for ithas no Testcricket whatsoever till next winter. Perhaps that is why theBCCI is desperately trying to get the New Zealanders to visit Indiabefore the World Cup. India is also scheduled to visit South Africa forthree tests and five one dayers next winter. But I wonder whether theBCCI will now opt for a tit for tat approach in the light of SouthAfrica pulling out of its Test commitments. More importantly, it isCSA which broke the news about its plan to scrap the Tests rather thanthe BCCI. Think of the revenue implications to the stagingassociations. In any case with the IPL dates having been broughtforward, how could the Test matches against SA have been squeezed in?And, what pray will Indian cricketers do in the meantime - playtiddlywinks.
As part of the Future Tours Program, India is scheduled to visitZimbabwe for two Tests and three one dayers next May. But as witheverything related to Zimbabwe cricket, there is no clarity on whetherthe tour will go ahead. Will India finally visit Zimbabwe or not, thatremains to be seen but according to the ICC cricket calender, there isalso a one day series which is scheduled to be played. Remains to beseen whether the tour, truncated or otherwise will go ahead. Thatleaves some of our ageing cricketers, most notably our batsmen in adilemma. Men like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar whoare all battling age will have no opportunities for close to ninemonths. There will be the odd one day series, maybe an Asia Cup, butno Test cricket till the Kiwis land in India. That too is uncertain.Of course, Indian cricketers will be busy with the IPL in March-Apriland then again some of them will be playing in next year's T 20Champions League, but that is just about it.
No cricket for our cricketers, sounds quaint for a team which normallyplays non stop cricket. Majola has stated that cramped scheduling isone of the reasons for CSA scrapping the Tests since the series was tobe followed by the IPL and then immediately by the T 20 World Cup. TheBCCI sins have caught up with it. With administrators - both in theBCCI and ICC - keen to monetise every opportunity through a surfeit ofT 20 cricket, it is Indian cricketers who will be starved of the reallitmus test - Tests. Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir,Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Zaheer, Harbhajan all in fine formwill yearn to play a Test match. More so when they find that evenBangladesh and Pakistan are playing all the time.
The ICC Test rankings works on the principle of points accumulatedover a Test series. Australia and South Africa have enoughopportunities in the near future to retain their grasp on the numerouno ranking. Of course India vanquishing Bangladesh will help, butonly for a short while as beyond February, there is no Test cricket insight. Nature abhors a vacuum and so the sides playing Test cricketwill remain in contention, while Indian cricketers will simply justclamour to get back on a Test pitch. I cannot comprehend how the BCCIhas agreed to such itineraries. Or maybe it is so besotted and fixatedwith one dayers and T 20 torunaments that it forgot to schedule Testmatches for its cricketers. Anyway I feel sorry for our batsmen whoare in the form of their lives, they cannot add to their Test tallies.In the main Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman who are in the twilight ofgreat careers. IPL wins over Tests for now...