Continuing debacles after winning Twenty20 World Cup made BCCI sit and plan for future. As a result, captain changed, Coaches changed and even fresh blood was pumped into team. Introduction of IPL made India the richest in money, strongest in clout, but weakest in preparing the talent pool. With players blaming too much cricket matches, no pool of talents around, can BCCI talk Cricket for India and plan better for nation or take disciplinary action against players who play just to secure their seat!! Or will BCCI kill the Golden Goose!!
Background
England tour have been such a disaster that it has shocked even the English fans. Nobody expected such a whitewash against previous World Number 1 team. Now the Captain Cool is facing heat for the first time in his career as captain. Star-studded batting unit has nowhere to hide except behind the Wall. Bowlers are batterred and prove India has no bowling future, even in spin.
What Led to the Disaster!!
BCCI and Indian players both are equally responsible for the disaster. While most of the Indian players, including the Youth Icon Captain Dhoni played just to reserve their seat in Indian team, BCCI can be held responsible for creating the situation where disaster was just a loss away. Unfortunately India vs England 2011 series not only had losses but also shameful performances.
BCCI and Controversial Decision
Making Dhoni The Captain Overlooking Seniors
There were controversial decisions such as making Dhoni the captain, despite having seniors like Dravid in the team. But, under Dhoni team tasted continuous success reaching the top of the Test ranking, winning the World Cup after 28 years. The controversial decision turned into one of the best decisions.
Fresh Blood Favored Against Experience
Then, there was the decision on pumping fresh blood in the team, even at the cost of good performing old heroes. Dravid was one of the scapegoats again. Despite some better performances than other teammates, including oldies and youngsters both, he was not considered for ODIs. World Cup was won without him. BCCI thought it has another decision to feel vindicated. But coming abroad, same BCCI is asking Dravid to play ODIs in England. What does it indicate about BCCI!!
IPL – Talent Search or Preparing Own Coffin for Money!!
IPL has brought India to the forefront of World Cricket. Almost every country has benefitted. Australia got Shane Watson and Geoff Marsh, West Indies can boast of Kemar Roach, Taylor and Pollard, and other countries also grabbed good IPL performers to include in their national team. What did India get!!
Indian players opted to play 45 plus days of Cricket despite their already hectic schedule. Money was fascinating, but the obligation to keep BCCI happy forced many to keep playing. They did not have the freedom of Michael Clarke and Michael Johnson or English players to say No to the tournament that was brining millions of dollars to BCCI and made them rich too.
BCCI on the other hand insisted that IPL will boost talent search for Indian team besides giving better opportunities to local players who never made it to the national team. Novel thoughts indeed. But where is the talent search headed to even after 4 successful editions of IPL!!
All Experiments Fail, BCCI Turn to Discarded Players
For England tour, BCCI cannot find replacements. Senior Players prefer to play IPL and then take rest for international series. Despite that BCCI could not find good replacements for some of the senior members in the last more than 2 years. Except Virat Kohli and probably, Ashwin and Murali Vijay there has been not many new faces who can be consistently treated as international level players.
When in crisis, BCCI still has to look towards Dravids, Yuvis, Sehwags, Zaheers and Harbhajan. If some of these senior players do not play even in a game, if we keep aside a series, Indian team looks as bad as Zimbabwe or West Indies. No wonder Indians were defeated in Zimbabwe and even in West Indies they had a challenging time when many seniors opted out of the series after being too tired performing their high-priority duties towards their respective IPL clubs.
What can BCCI do towards it!! The idea is novel to create a huge pool of players who can represent India in different series. India can play 365 days cricket with players being rested properly. But where is the pool of players!! Where has the experiment gone of promoting youngsters even at the cost of performing seniors!!
Can BCCI Act for India!!
BCCI has no answers till now. If they do not try to find any answers shrugging off shoulders to the shameful England series defeat, then India is set to a phase where they will soon tumble down the ladder. Players will never say no on their own. If they wanted, they could not have waited for defeats to explain how tired they were.
Despite claiming they are too tired, if players are still playing then they are clearly indicating BCCI is forcing them to play. BCCI should either plan to make amendments or punish such cricketers!! What will BCCI do!!
Will it be Nothing, as in the past, or something that can assert India’s supremacy on field again!!
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