Blog: IPL, the monster that’s killing Indian cricket
India face 4-0 defeat against Australia in Test Series
© AFP
India's 4-0 drubbing in Australia once again raises the pertinent question as to whether the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) is doing more harm than good to Indian cricket. While it will be unfair to blame the T20 league completely for India’s pathetic showing Down Under and earlier in England as well, it cannot be denied that IPL has without doubt played a major part in the decline of Indian cricket, especially away from home. We did win the World Cup at home, but since have fared very badly in Test cricket.
Take the case of the series against West Indies both and home and away. The Indian batting collapsed on more than a few occasions, and they managed to get away only because the Windies weren't capable of capitalizing on India's failings. The chief reason for India's batting failures can be attributed to the length of the T20 tournament. Most of the batsmen's minds were so conditioned to playing shots that they couldn't stick at the crease for even a reasonable amount of time. So worried were they of losing their wickets in a tizzy in West Indies, they shut down the chase in one of the Tests when they needed less than 100 in 15 overs with most of their wickets in hand. This was a precursor to what was to follow in England and Australia. Unfortunately, neither Team India nor the BCCI paid heed to any of the warning signals.
Another clear rationale behind India's debacle in England was that a number of players were either unfit after the IPL or picked up injuries during it. The whole embarrassing situation played itself out in England. Zaheer Khan, who was India's best bowler throughout the World Cup, struggled in the IPL. That's not all, he even looked unfit during the tournament. However, instead of being rested he played throughout the event. As a result, he went to England without being 100 per cent fit, and pulled out of the England series on the very first day of the Test. The start couldn't have been worse for India, and things did not improve as the days progressed on the tour.
All the players' techniques were tested, but apart from Rahul Dravid no one could get out of the IPL rut. The BCCI did not help matters by sending in an unfit Virender Sehwag to try and work some miracles. The result was the exactly the opposite. Sehwag registered a couple ducks and, apart from the record 219 ODI score at home, has looked all at sea both in England and Australia. Suresh Raina, another played who is a superstar in the IPL, also failed miserably, putting his Test career on the backtrack for the moment. The problem with IPL is that even flukes can look like greats. Take the case of Swapnil Asnodkar and Paul Valthaty, both of whom briefly shone in the tournament, but have done precious little otherwise. Of course, there have been positives too to come out from the IPL – R. Ashwin being the noteworthy case. However, there is no second opinion about it that the harms have outdone the goods.
This is not to suggest that the club tournament must be scrapped altogether. It can exist with international cricket, albeit in a shorter duration format and the timings too shouldn't clash with international matches. It was senseless to have an IPL tournament merely a week after India's World Cup triumph. Fans had hardly celebrated the memorable win that the T20 tournament got underway. Also, the BCCI ought to take sterner measures if they want Indian cricket to do well in the future. Having sporting tracks at home, as suggested by some experts, is not a solution. That would actually mean that we play into the hands of the opposition by losing the home advantage. Restructuring the India A tours with more visits to England, Australia and South Africa is the way forward.
If the BCCI, instead, concentrates more on the IPL, it would end up becoming the monster that's killing Indian cricket, as Arjuna Ranatunga famously pointed out sometime back.
By: The Pinch Hitter
Ever since The Pinch Hitter was introduced to cricket at the age of nine, he fell in love with the gentleman's game. While his desire to take up the sport professionally remained unfulfilled, he substituted the bat with the pen. And since 2003, he has been commenting on the sport for various magazines, websites, enjoying every moment of it. With 'Over the top' he hopes to continue enlightening and enlivening 'cricket companions' the write way.
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