Wisden Comment
by Dileep Premachandran
Tuesday, November 13, 2001

Another tour match down the drain, literally, and India's hopes of giving some ring-rusty players a workout are reduced to a pipedream. Six days were lost to the weather at Chatsworth and East London, but there was no actual rain on two of those days. Makes you wonder about the drainage facilities at these grounds. Super-soppers anyone?

Such whinges aside, the break has given people plenty of time to theorise about what ails Indian cricket. Most have tended to bypass the big picture, focussing instead on trivialities like pitches. Since the Second World War Australia, West Indies and England have taken turns to dominate Test cricket. Comparing the pitches at St John's in Antigua, Headingley in Leeds and the WACA in Perth is a bit like discussing the relative merits of Gruyère, Edam and Stilton cheese. Success requires a much deeper foundation than the layer of grass and topsoil on a pitch.

Sunil Gavaskar was spot-on when he said that India needed to look within, at the rotten core of domestic cricket. The system may occasionally throw up a Shiv Sunder Das or a Virender Sehwag, but they are the lucky fish that slip through the net. That analogy isn¹t quite right, though, because in truth India¹s domestic cricket is like a safe and sanitised aquarium that in no way prepares a player for the deep and dangerous waters of international cricket. When you've spent your formative years frolicking with goldfish, coming face to face with a great white shark can be a less-than-pleasant experience.

What's wrong with India¹s domestic cricket is a question with a one-sentence answer: the top players don¹t play enough, if they play at all. Sachin Tendulkar has averaged just over two Ranji Trophy matches a season since he made his debut 13 years ago. Many of India's promising young batsmen have never squared up to Javagal Srinath or Anil Kumble. And the same goes for the aspiring bowlers, for most of whom the ultimate Tendulkar test is as much in the realm of fantasy as a Test cap.

In his autobiography, Gavaskar wrote of how much he benefited from his tussles with the famed spin quartet in domestic cricket, and what he learnt from observing his batting icons, Jaisimha in particular. The chances are that Das or Sehwag won't be writing anything similar, not about the domestic scene, anyway.

No blame should be attached to the players. Tendulkar has represented India in a staggering 365 international matches, including 85 Tests since his debut in 1989-90. So can you blame him for wanting to put his feet up after a long tour instead of trudging off to Saurashtra for some inconsequential Ranji game? And this is a man who clearly loves playing for Mumbai. His joy at taking them to the final two seasons ago, with a magical double-century, was far from manufactured. Sadly, he doesn¹t get to don the colours very often.

Every story needs a fall guy, and in Indian cricket's case that's undoubtedly the Board. Over the past few years, India has played matches - mostly meaningless ones - in Toronto, Singapore, Sharjah, Kenya and Bangladesh, all in the name of promoting cricket in these countries. All of which brings to mind Voltaire's words: "Regardez votre jardin [look at your own garden]". While that remains unkempt and overgrown with weeds, what price planting seedlings next door?

There are other problems too, and India aren't alone. English cricket's decline has coincided with an alarming dip in county standards. Both India and England have a bench-strength that is about as thin as the coat of nail-varnish on a teenage fingernail. Whereas Australia's second team might conceivably thrash every other Test-playing nation bar South Africa, the Indian and English versions would struggle to last three days against an Australian state side.

I read an article recently which talked about India having vast resources in terms of talent and money. Where is all this talent, then, because I for one don't see it? If Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting pulled out of a Test tomorrow, Australia wouldn't even break sweat. In players like Simon Katich and Michael Slater - not to mention unheralded talents like Michael Hussey and Martin Love - they have quality replacements on tap. Imagine the hysteria, on the other hand, if India were to go into a Test deprived of the services of both Tendulkar and Dravid.

There is another aspect too. Because he doesn't rub shoulders with Tendulkar and co. in the domestic arena, a young man catapulted into the Test team finds life so much harder. From being a big fish in a small pond, he's suddenly in the same dressing-room as men he has looked up to since he first put bat to ball. Contrast that to Australia, where 18-year-olds have had the pleasure of being on the field with Steve Waugh as he dons the whites for Bankstown on a slow Saturday.

Domestic cricket has to be strengthened if India want to be truly competitive again. It's a bit like pig-iron and stainless steel. Brittle pig-iron is heated until white-hot, and then plunged into liquid so it becomes strong and tensile. Only when you mix it with the best will you discover if you can take the heat and keep a cool head under pressure. Till that day dawns, we're doomed to watch players thrown into the deep end – and swallowing water and sinking out of sight.

As for those who say that domestic cricket is no spectacle, what would you rather watch? Tendulkar against Kumble and Srinath in a Ranji game, or Tendulkar making mincemeat of some Bangladeshi bowler?

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com India.

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