Image Credit- AFP
Given the duration
of the Ranji Trophy, India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has advocated for
lengthier intervals between matches to aid in players’ better recovery and
preparation. If Mumbai made it to the final, they would have played ten
first-class matches in less than ten weeks.
Teams have only had three days off between games under the current schedule,
which Shardul described as “difficult” and said timetables are
growing “tighter and tighter.”
“If boys keep
playing like this for two more seasons, there will be a lot of injuries across
the country,” he said after hitting a maiden first-class century to rescue
Mumbai from 106 for 6, as they went on to open up a 207-run lead with one wicket
remaining.
“Next year, they [the BCCI] have to re-look at it, and give more [of a]
break. When I remember playing Ranji Trophy back in the day, good seven to
eight years back, [the] first three games used to have [a] three-day break, and
then it was [a] four-day break, and knockouts were played [with] five-day
breaks.”
The BCCI has forced
to cram all senior men’s competitions into a smaller window than normal since
the IPL season keeps growing. Due to this, a number of well-known first-class
cricket players have been quietly bemoaning the lack of significance of contests
like the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy, which are the zonal first-class and
one-day championships that kick off the domestic season.
Aside from injuries, this small gap has caused teams to struggle with travel
fatigue. For instance, Gujarat’s travel to New Delhi was cancelled the day
after their Ahmedabad home match versus Karnataka.
“Now this year,
we have seen that all the games have been played [with a] three-day gap. It is
extremely tough on domestic players to expect them to play ten games in a row
with just three-day gap if [a] team makes it to the finals.
“Also, when nine teams were in the group [in the old format], one team
would get a break in [the] round-robin system. Now with only eight teams being
in one group, everyone plays each other, so that [extra] break has gone
now.”