Duleep Trophy had a purpose but that purpose is long over
There will be no Duleep Trophy this year and, in spite of the BCCI’s reassurances on its future, I am not sure it is such a bad thing. I have long argued that in matches where there is no predominant team loyalty players will tend to play for their own performance. So too with the Deodhar Trophy and the Irani Trophy. If anything, India has too much domestic cricket and if you have to prioritise you must move towards events where being part of a team produces a special feeling.
It will, for example, be interesting to ask players from Karnataka, who have had an amazing season, whether they feel a buzz playing for South Zone. Or players from Mumbai or Tamil Nadu or Bengal for that matter. The Duleep Trophy had a role when the Ranji Trophy was played on zonal lines and players got no more than three or four first class matches.
A zone has ceased to have any relevance now that the Ranji Trophy is played differently. And, it follows, that the principle of having selectors from zones, flawed in the first place since it produced regional rather than national loyalties, is outdated too. Already players play for their state, their country and their IPL team. You cannot foist another identity on them. The Duleep Trophy had a purpose but that purpose is long over.
Even the Ranji Trophy, I believe, is too unwieldy, quite apart from the fact that having too many times necessarily dilutes the quality of cricket. It will lead to an interesting debate on what the priority of the parent body, in this case the BCCI, is. If the objective is to be inclusive, to give as many players the opportunity to play first class cricket as possible, then the more teams you have the better it is. If however, the primary objective is to produce the finest possible national team, then having more players playing is counter-productive because it dilutes the quality of the feeder system. You could argue that dividing the Ranji Trophy into three zones effectively does that, and that allowing the lower tier teams a shot in the knockout gives them the opportunity to compete, but it still comes in the way of the primary objective.
A strong national team is produced by having strong competition directly below it and so the purpose at all times has to be to make the Ranji Trophy the toughest possible tournament.
If, however, the primary objective of organising sport in the country is to have a domestic league, like football does all over the world, or basketball, American football and baseball do in the USA, then you can understand having a lot of teams with extensive feeder systems. It creates a culture in itself and involves an international community.
Basketballers hardly ever play for their country and even footballers are identified by club more than by country.
Now if the objective of the EPL was to produce the strongest possible football team for England, the Premiership would have to be completely different because you would want more home-bred people and there wouldn’t be enough to support so many teams.
So if the objective of sport is to create a largely privately owned league structure with no state, or indeed national boundaries, then more teams adds to the drama.
If however you want to create strong national identities through tough feeder systems then smaller pools work much better. As things stand, cricket is too far removed from football or basketball. In spite of the IPL or the Big Bash or the CPL, the primary competition is still country versus country and in such a situation, regional sport must be tough, intense and therefore condensed.
There are far too many inconsequential teams in the Ranji Trophy. Good young players from those areas are condemned to play a lower level of cricket.
And so they could end up playing in their backyard where otherwise they might fly over and find a higher perch. You cannot have so many good cricketers in one country and that means, like in England, you will have players playing for lesser objectives; because they have nothing else to do for example.
It is noble to find them employment but not good for the intensity of competition. Even England had to resort to central contracts to ensure that their players weren’t tired and wasting time playing too much of ordinary cricket.
