India’s ban on players taking part in overseas leagues, and a consequent inability to win a Twenty20 World Cup since the dawn of the Indian Premier League 14 years ago, may just be the price of Test cricket’s global survival.
That was the earnest takeaway of India’s thoughtful coach Rahul Dravid after a night on which England, a team stacked with Big Bash League veterans led by the match award winner Alex Hales and captain Jos Buttler, raced away to a victory that set up a replay of the 1992 ODI World Cup final against England at the MCG.
Jos Buttler and Alex Hales celebrate England’s victory.Credit:Getty Images
Cricket’s tectonic plates will be shifting in parallel with the buildup to the tournament decider, as the International Cricket Council board meets to decide on the re-election of the current chair, Greg Barclay, before discussions begin on how to divide up the $US3 billion ($4.5 billion) broadcast rights deal recently agreed with Disney Star.
That money comes almost entirely from the enormous size of the Indian market, which has also made the IPL cricket’s biggest commercial property by far. And yet the embargo on Indian players going to overseas T20 leagues such as the BBL is having the counterweight effect of restricting the national team’s array of experience and ability to win trophies.
For Dravid, one of cricket’s soundest minds, the flow-on effects are numerous. It was startling, but not entirely inaccurate, for him to speak of how West Indies cricket has devolved due to T20 franchise clashes with its home season over the past decade.
“There’s no doubt about it that England, a lot of their players have come here and played in this tournament, it’s certainly showed,” Dravid said. “It’s tough, I think it’s very difficult for Indian cricket because a lot of these tournaments happen right in the peak of our season. It’s a huge challenge for us. Yes, I think a lot of our boys maybe do miss out on the opportunities of playing in a lot of these leagues, but it’s really up to the BCCI to make that decision.
Rohit Sharma walks off.Credit:AP
“The thing is, it’s right in the middle of our season and with the kind of demand there would be for Indian players, if you allowed all the Indian players to play in these leagues, we would not have domestic cricket. Our domestic cricket, our Ranji Trophy would be finished, and that would mean Test cricket would be finished.”
For Jay Shah, the BCCI’s secretary and representative on the ICC board, these sorts of balances must also be considered when he confers with Barclay over how much of the global rights deal India will demand for itself.
“I know a lot of people talk about it, but we need to be careful, we have to understand the challenges that Indian cricket faces or the BCCI would face in a situation like this,” he said. “A lot of boys being asked to play right, bang in the middle of our season, we see what that’s done to West Indian cricket.
“I would definitely not want Indian cricket to go that way. It would certainly affect our Ranji Trophy, it would affect Test cricket, and Indian boys playing Test cricket is pretty important for the Test game as well I would think.“
In terms of where the semi-final was won and lost, Dravid reckoned that India had finished some 20 runs short of where they needed to be after being sent in on a good and true Adelaide surface.
“We knew the key to the game was to try to break that opening partnership,” Dravid said. “We tried to attack a little bit with our lengths up front … the ball didn’t swing maybe as much as other parts of Australia in other conditions played a little bit into their hands, and I thought Buttler and Hales’ partnership was fantastic.
“They put the pressure on us, never let that go, and even when our spinners came on, we thought they might be able to control the game, but they really counter-attacked our spinners well and put us under a lot of pressure.”
For Buttler, the BBL experience of Hales was balanced with the quality of a T20 opener who had, for some years, sat on the outer of England’s plans only to gain a recall.
“Alex would have played as much Big Bash cricket as anyone and his performance tonight was amazing,” Buttler said. “There’s some huge strengths of his square of the wicket, which today on this kind of ground was great.
“But he’s a tough guy to bowl at, obviously performing really well for a long period of time, unfortunately he hasn’t been able to get back in due to other players playing brilliantly as well, a few circumstances an opportunity has arisen, and the last three matches especially, his form’s been brilliant and he was great to tuck in behind today.”
India’s defeat should, at least, provide a reminder that the many forces shaping cricket in 2022 do not all bend squarely in the direction of the game’s richest nation.
