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Whenever it comes to the greatest and most outspoken batsmen in the pages of Indian cricket history, the name of former great captain Sunil Gavaskar is taken at the top. Gavaskar never shies away from speaking out when it comes to the technical intricacies of the game and protecting the interests of the players. These days, a huge debate has erupted in the corridors of the Indian cricket world regarding the players’ constantly busy international and domestic schedules. Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar, popularly known as ‘Little Master’, has given a sharp and very thoughtful statement taking on the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He has bluntly said that Indian cricketers are not machines or sugarcanes, which have to be continuously squeezed to extract every drop of strength from their bodies. Gavaskar has made a strong demand for immediate concrete steps to protect the mental and physical health of players as well as save the country’s traditional domestic cricket structure, which has sent cricket administration into a tizzy.
Sunil Gavaskar, through a column written in the prestigious magazine ‘Sportstar’, has expressed deep concern over the busy calendar of modern cricket. He has especially emphasized that when the ICC meets to discuss the International Cricket Calendar (Future Tours Programme) for the next four years starting from the year 2027, the decision-making officials should be fully aware that the players are humans, not robots. Due to playing non-stop cricket, the risk of players getting injured is continuously increasing, and their performance is also declining. Gavaskar believes that although India has the strongest bench strength in the world, and it is said that India can field three different teams simultaneously, but recent international results and matches have made it clear that it is not possible for just one Indian team to dominate the field and win all the trophies at a time. Managing the workload of players to keep them mentally and physically fresh has no longer become an option but a mandatory requirement.
Sunil Gavaskar has raised very sharp questions not only on the international schedule but also on the current situation of Indian domestic cricket. He clearly believes that the excellent performance of the Indian national team is a direct result of our strong domestic cricket structure. A strong international team is not created out of the blue, but for this it is most important for the country’s local pitches and domestic tournaments to be strong. Gavaskar has expressed strong objection to the fact that the way our traditional and most prestigious red-ball championship i.e. Ranji Trophy has been ignored and its schedule has been pushed around in the last few years, the backbone of Test cricket is weakening. His argument is that red ball cricket provides players with the mental toughness, technical discipline and patience that the modern format of white ball cricket can never teach. If red-ball cricket continues to be neglected like this, then in the coming times the country will stop getting international top class Test batsmen and bowlers, which can prove to be a big crisis for the future of Indian cricket.
Highlighting the shortcomings in the scheduling of domestic tournaments, Sunil Gavaskar also spoke openly on the functioning of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and IPL. He suggested that other domestic tournaments should also be organized on similar lines to the way planning is done between the Ranji Trophy knockout matches and the league stage. The current situation is that after the league stage of Ranji Trophy, there is a long gap of more than a month for the white-ball tournament, due to which the players’ rhythm, rhythm and pace of the match is completely disturbed. Apart from this, he raised the question that why Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is not played like Ranji till the quarter-finals and then the semi-finals and finals are not held after taking a break of a few weeks in between? He himself replied to this and wrote that this is not done because the mega or mini auction of IPL has to be held immediately after the tournament, and the franchises and their scouts want to run this tournament without any interruption till the end to keep an eye on the players. Gavaskar believes that holding the tournament at the beginning of the season in early September will not make any difference to the keen eyes of those scouts, as they do not forget the performance of the players even in the auctions held months later.
At the end of this article, Sunil Gavaskar has warned the Indian cricket administrators that if Indian cricket has to maintain its dominance on the global stage forever, then it will have to return to its roots i.e. domestic cricket. Winning gold medals in events like the Asian Games may give players momentary energy and confidence, but T20 or ODI leagues alone are not enough for long-term success. Unless the Ranji Trophy and other red-ball domestic tournaments are given back their lost respect and prominent place in the calendar, it will not be possible for India to produce world-class and technically mature players. This blunt advice of Gavaskar is a bell which both BCCI and ICC should heed in time, otherwise the excessive physical and mental abuse of the players will shake the foundation of Indian cricket which has been watered by decades of hard work. This issue of health protection of players and dignity of domestic cricket has now become not just the opinion of a former captain, but the biggest demand of the Indian sports world.