The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : The Duleep Trophy tournament has lost its charm

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The Duleep Trophy tournament has lost its charm

Either we continue with the league format or drop the tournament, writes Makrand Waingankar

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to convert the Duleep Trophy into a knockout tournament due to unavailability of an overseas team. This may attract a lot of criticism but if the BCCI were to ask majority of the state captains the view would be not to hold the tournament at all.

To get rid of the weird selection process for picking a zonal team, the BCCI had asked the National selectors to pick the five teams but the experiment failed.

The Duleep Trophy was introduced with an idea to have the top players from various zones play against each other. The quality missing in the inter-state matches was also evident in the inter-zonal Duleep Trophy matches played in front of the packed stands in 60s and 70s.

Criterion for selection

Performance in the Duleep Trophy would be considered a criterion for selection of the India team. There have been cases of players not doing well in the national championships but after getting a nod from the zonal selectors have done well to get selected for the Indian team. The BCCI felt that to pick the right combination of 15 they needed 75 performers from the states to play in the Duleep Trophy.

There were regular instances of undeserved players getting selected for the zones with majority of the five selectors agreeing on a formula to push their boys. The rot continued and players who were good enough to play for the country were asked to carry drinks for the zone team.

Lesser opportunities

With all the top players of the country busy playing international matches, the Duleep Trophy has lost its charm and with the tournament being played on a knockout basis, there will be lesser opportunities for the second tier players.

Either we continue with the league format or drop the tournament altogether. The selectors have the option of looking at the performances of the India A matches.

The slot meant for the Duleep Trophy could be utilised for having additional India A series against tougher opposition.

Those matches would be the right way to build the bench strength and not waste the slot giving opportunities to players who will never be on the radar of the national selectors.

Another way to use the slot is to have inter-state T20 matches. India won the T20 World Championship (not World Cup) but there is no slot for the T20 domestic tournament.

Need for rethink

In fact the Programme and Fixtures Committee of the BCCI has to have a rethink on the number of tournaments and its schedule. Priority should be afforded to the national championships and three other tournaments by making the format result-oriented.

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