Domestic crock

Our batsmen can't play fast bowling. (Hardly surprising considering they see so little of it at home.) We have no fast bowlers. (Hardly surprising considering they have so little to work with.) Our fielding standards are abysmal. (Hardly surprising considering the state of the grounds our cricket is played on.) There is little aggression in our cricket. (Hardly surprising considering there is so little to play for.) Our players can't make a soon enough 'transition' at the international level. (Hardly surprising considering the chasm between what they practice on and what they are expected to deliver on.) We are not a team that tours well. (Hardly surprising considering every tour is almost like a visit to another planet.) We are committed front foot players. (Hardly surprising considering we don't have to play off the back foot on our grounds.) We have no opening batsmen worth writing home about. (Hardly surprising considering how little they face at home of what they face at the international level. The general standards of umpiring in India are abysmally low. (Hardly surprising considering how badly we treat our domestic umpires.) Half time, change sides.

Their batsmen can play fast bowling. (Hardly surprising considering how much they see of it at home.) They are choc-a-bloc with fast bowlers. (Hardly surprising considering their' bowlers have so much raw material to play around with.) They field, as Geoffrey would say, like demons. (Hardly surprising considering the 'oh-so-delicious' state of the lovingly tended to grounds they play, even, their domestic cricket on.) There is so much aggression in their cricket. (Hardly surprising considering they are encouraged to take an 'obvious' pride in their performance.) Their players are so much better at making the 'transition' at the international level. (Hardly surprising considering the relatively smaller jump they have to make from what they practice on to what they are expected to deliver on.) They tour with a lot more confidence. (Hardly surprising considering the conditions in most other countries don't come feel like playing on another planet. Incidentally, the fact that our conditions are so alien from the real world could be, more, the reason they haven't won in India yet than the fact that we play infinitely superior cricket.) They play with equal dexterity of the front and the back foot. (Hardly surprising considering, unlike us, they have to hone an all-round game on the kind of varied conditions they encounter at home.) They have opening batsmen. (Hardly surprising considering they know the real meaning of what it is to be an opening batsman.) The general standard of umpiring there is superior. (Hardly surprising considering how much confidence they repose in their officials.)

Now, consider this. When was the last time you enjoyed watching domestic cricket in India? I don't know about you, but I don't remember. How many times have batsmen who've scored tons and tons of runs in our cricket, made even a fraction of them in the real world? I don't know about you, but I don't remember. When was the last time we felt confident about a bowler who grabs a bag-full of wickets in domestic cricket doing the same on the international level? I don't know about you, but I don't remember. Who remembers Vikram Rathore? The only thing I remember of him is he couldn't bat to save his life on anything other than the backyard the tracks at home were akin to for him. Remember Amay Khurasia? Sure, I remember him. But only as a man who did another Raman Lamba on us. Remember Kambli? I certainly do. But only how easy the bowlers found it to sort him out. Remember WV Raman? Remember Dinesh Gandhi? Remember VVS Laxman? (Well, hopefully, he'll still come good.)

Sachin Tendulkar is not a product of our domestic cricket structure. Sourav is not a product of our domestic cricket structure. Kumble is not a product of our domestic cricket structure. Rahul Dravid is not a product of our domestic structure. These are men who've made it despite the domestic quagmire our cricket is in. Ask them and they'll be the first to tell you how farcical our domestic cricket is. So it should come as no surprise that they don't feel the need to play it once they make it into the Indian team. And why should they? There's little value-add that is likely to happen playing in the kind of conditions we see. Just like there's little point in continuing this oft-repeated rant. Like we care.

If we did, we wouldn't still be tolerating the likes of the men who run the 'cricket-industrial complex' here. Men who're busy plotting and planning the next money making jamboree to Sharjah while the Aussies are plotting and planning our next defeat at home. But since nobody cares, I'll just stop.

Avinash Subramaniam

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