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Mediocre show continues

G. Viswanath

Quality of pitches for the matches are appalling

Mumbai: The Ranji Trophy continues to languish in mediocrity with only Manish Pandey and Abhimanyu Mithun having dazzled so far.

Observers at Meerut where Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh have straightaway spotted a raw fast bowling talent in Mithun. Those who saw him take 11 wickets in that match regard him as a genuine tearaway in full cry and demanding scalps.

Pandey’s 194 in the first innings against Rudra Pratap Singh, Bhuvanesh Kumar and Piyush Chawla too has evoked lavish praise.

It’s a long season ahead and the two will be watched closely. Apart from Pandey and Mithun’s fine performances, the Super League has been bereft of new and exciting talent.

Grand entry

Twenty summers ago Sachin Tendulkar made a grand entry into the Ranji Trophy with a scintillating 100 not out against Gujarat at the Wankhede Stadium.

It took a while for the likes of Rahul Dravid, V.V.S Laxman and Sourav Ganguly to show their mettle. Ganguly has left the scene and time will tell on Indian cricket soon when the middle order will be bare. It’s important that the national championship throws fresh talent capable of filling the vacuum.

As of now there are not many in sight. After nearly 10 years Yuvraj Singh is yet to become an established Test batsman.

Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma have not done anything of note to demand a place in the Test team. Only the national selectors can answer why S. Badrinath has been given a short shrift.

There are umpteen reasons for the poor quality of cricket in the first class competitions played in the country. The quality of wickets prepared for the matches are appalling.

The State associations have vested interests and order the curator to prepare a featherbed pitch so that even second-rate batsmen plunder runs.

Flat decks

Last week Gujarat’s coach Jayendra Sehgal said on the eve of the match against Tamil Nadu that the deck was flat. Not far away at Rajkot, Saurashtra’s captain Jaidev Shah said the same and hoped his batsmen will stay put and score runs in order to take the first innings lead against Uttar Pradesh.

The match at Ahmedabad turned out to be ordinary with neither the seamers nor the spinners having a say. The pitch showed its bias to the batsmen and including a struggling Jay Desai scored a century in his fifth Ranji Trophy match.

More galling was when the umpires did not deem the light conditions fit at the scheduled start of play on the third day, when most felt that the light was good.

At the slightest hint of fading light and a few rain drops, the umpires were not inclined to get the match going forward. Tamil Nadu suffered and lost a chance for five points.

It’s time the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) puts in place a system wherein home associations tell their ground staff to prepare a proper wicket for a contest between the bat and ball and not for the batsmen to occupy the crease and pile up runs. Not a single seamer looked the part on a brown top at the Sardar Patel stadium at Navrangpura.

The BCCI has spent lot of money on improving the quality of umpiring and from this season has asked the umpires to come down heavily on bowlers with illegal action.

Pitch preparation

Now the BCCI has to be proactive on the preparation of the pitch and tell the home associations to look beyond the prize. A sporting wicket will offer an even chance for the batsmen and the bowlers and produce healthy and competitive cricket.

Some years ago Sunil Gavaskar recommended that the top ten teams should form the Super League. Vested interests in the BCCI did not care and expanded the Super League to 15 teams.

The BCCI has to revise the format of the Ranji Trophy, address this critical issue and take radical steps to revitalise the national championship. Otherwise it will only throw up ordinary fare.

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