The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Get rid of the eligibility rules

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Get rid of the eligibility rules

Indian cricket will grow only if quality cricketers are given the opportunities, writes Makarand Waingankar

Talented Indian cricketers who weren’t getting opportunities due to local politics must be thankful to the Indian Premier League (IPL) for letting them showcase their talent.

There is no dearth of talent in the country, but the bias of state selection committees was making things difficult for the talented players.

The story of Manpreet Gony is an eye-opener to all the decision makers in the cricket associations. The IPL gave opportunity to talented players like Gony and Asnodkar.

Recently a player was observed bowling medium pace and batting with both hands in one city of north India. Such players have problems getting through the eligibility rules of the state associations.

The BCCI must get rid of the eligibility rules of associations and allow players to play wherever they wish. Blocking players from other states is definitely not good for the game.

No gains

These associations are keen to give maximum opportunities to locals, but no association gains if mediocre players get more opportunities.

During the time when the inter-offices tournaments in Mumbai were allowing players from other states, watching Brijesh Patel play spinner Padmakar Shivalkar not only drew huge crowds but raised the standard of the game. Polly Umrigar, who served the game in various capacities for half a century, was of the opinion that as long as a player was an Indian, he should be eligible to play for any state.

He felt that weaker teams would thereby become stronger and the players in all states would stand to gain.

Nari Contractor played for Gujarat and made it to the Indian team. Dattu Phadkar first played for Maharashtra, qualified from there for India and later played for Mumbai.

While both players were excellent at the time they opted for teams other than Mumbai, that of course was made necessary by the sheer bench-strength of the Mumbai team having no room in the side for one more performer.

In the 70s, Karsan Ghavri and Rakesh Tandon switched over to Mumbai from weaker states — Saurashtra and Vidarbha respectively.

Apart from Umrigar’s suggestion of any Indian player being allowed to play for any state, it should also be made compulsory that players choosing a state other than their home-state must also play local cricket in the state, which would have the benefit of getting local players to play with and against quality players.

By restricting the entry of players from other states, all that the associations achieve is promoting local mediocre players. This is the reason why the Mumbai team is not as strong as it used to be.

If the BCCI could let the IPL implement free movement of players, why should it restrict players from going to other states?

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