How one Ishan Kishan hiatus cascaded into the revival of Indian domestic cricket

Kishan’s break itself was a non-issue, but his dealings that followed with the Board of Control for Cricket in India had dire consequences. The fiasco truly began with Kishan choosing to remain on the sidelines for the ensuing Test series against England but more importantly, making himself unavailable for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy. Things only became worse when he was spotted training in Baroda instead with IPL skipper Hardik Pandya at a private facility.

If you are fit then no excuse will be entertained. This applies to all centrally contracted players, they have to play. The player cannot decide his future, the selectors need to decide that. If the player is good in red-ball, he has to play.

Jay Shah

BCCI piled on the emphasis on red-ball cricket thereafter by dramatically announcing a ‘Test Incentive Scheme’ after the England series’ conclusion and while the move flew under the radar, it does have some major implications. For instance, India is slated to play 17 Tests in the 2023/24 season. Jasprit Bumrah has missed just one Test of the seven so far – if he plays seven more out of the remaining 10, it would take him past the 75% appearances barrier, thereby boosting his match fee earnings from around INR 1.95 Cr to a staggering INR 7.80 Cr, an increment of 300%. 

However, with the introduction of ‘A’ teams, one-day cricket, and ultimately T20s, the tournament was shunned to the doldrums. Apart from the uncountable format changes, the tournament was scrapped in 2007 and 2015 altogether because of a busy cricketing calendar. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) even made the decision permanent in 2017, only to reverse their stance three days later citing “prestige” – you know things are bad when the country’s top administrators could think of tradition as the only reason to keep a tournament afloat. 

The declining popularity of the Duleep Trophy can be gauged by the fact that Sunil Gavaskar played 24 games for the West Zone, his successor Sachin Tendulkar only made eight appearances, while current generation players such as KL Rahul and Virat Kohli had only played a couple of editions until 2024. This is exactly what has changed – the tournament now serves a far greater purpose than just keeping Duleepsinhji’s legacy alive, courtesy of a slew of changes.

Thirdly, the tournament serves as the perfect testing ground for domestic super talents in all types of situations against truly elite talent. Not only does the level of opposition challenge them physically and technically but also gives a fair account of their mental aptitudes. Bowling to a domestic high-achiever in the Ranji is a whole different gravy than bowling to a Rishabh Pant or a Shubman Gill with a dedicated audience following at home and under the close scrutiny of national selectors. Similarly, the surfaces that were on offer in Bengaluru and Anantapur in the first two rounds proved to be a proper challenge for batters, pacers, and spinners alike, further enhancing the value of performances.

One might be tempted to argue that regular game time in the Ranji would solve all these issues. However, the idea is impossible in practice and flawed in principle. The current scheduling of international and franchise cricket is as asinine as any professional sport gets, making the participation of national team players – especially all-format players – a pipe dream. In 2022, India played a record 71 internationals, and then nearly bettered the mark the following year with 66 matches. For context, only twice has a Test-playing nation been involved in over 60 encounters in a calendar year – Australia and New Zealand (61) in 2009 and 2023 respectively. Add to that two months of the IPL and it makes for well over 100 days of just cricket, never mind the travelling, rest days between games, training, and post-tournament recovery.

This contributes to another problem with the Ranji – a lack of fair competition. Courtesy of the sheer size and population of India, the Ranji Trophy is inevitably split into groups featuring a combination of strong and weak teams, thus allowing players to rack up numbers that only have face value. Add to that the absence of international talent, and the tournament’s standard becomes inappropriate for Test selection. In the latest Ranji season, three of the four elite groups had at least one team that managed less than 10 points, including four teams that went winless – Manipur in Elite Group A ended up losing all their seven games.

For all the credit that is due to the BCCI for these recent developments, sustainability as always remains key. This isn't the first time the Duleep Trophy has undergone drastic changes and probably won't be the last. Even the zonal format has been banished for the second time, following the introduction of India Red, Green, and Blue from 2016-19. The idea remained similar then, but the execution lagged. For instance, the first such edition saw 21 Test players participate, but only two were incumbents with the rest either too young to be in the conversation or the twilight of their careers. Even then, the number reduced to 19 in 2017, 8 in 2018, and 7 in 2019 as the calendar got more crammed.