Narrowing the Quality Gap

Roshan Paul

A little while ago, some former Australian players commented that the ICC should be concerned at the growing disparity between the teams at the top of cricket and the ones at the bottom. They went on to suggest that rather than worrying about spreading the game across the globe, the ICC should instead concentrate on improving the standard of play in countries such as West Indies, India and Zimbabwe.

The recent invitation by the West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) to send an India 'A' team to participate in the West Indies' first-class competition seems to be a step in that direction. This is an excellent idea, and will be mutually beneficial in that players from both countries will get some international exposure that will help them no end.

This proposal merits serious considering and might even be extended further to include non-Test playing nations. Instead of rushing Bangladesh into Test cricket - something they are probably weren't and still aren't quite ready for - the ICC should have asked Bangladesh to travel to other nations and participate in their domestic competitions until they got competitive enough to actually win Test matches.

For instance, inviting Bangladesh to compete in the Ranji Trophy could be India's contribution to globalizing cricket, rather than playing masala matches in Malaysia or Hong Kong. While these games will give citizens of those countries an exposure to international cricket, it hardly aids their cricketers. And what use is the entry of a Malaysia into international cricket if it can't compete with the top teams?

For globalization to be attractive, cricket must become more competitive and not as one-sided as it seems to be today. In debates about globalization, its dissentors stridently protest that globalization is widening the gap between rich and poor. A parallel with cricket can be drawn for as the game spreads it is also becoming less competitive as even established teams are steadily declining. Is there a connection? I wonder...

But I digress. In the two World Cups, there have been 3 non-Test playing nations, whom everyone could expect to beat. Kenya's victory against West Indies and Bangladesh beating an already-qualified Pakistan were aberrations; resulting from overconfidence on the part of their opponents rather than a great performance from the qualifiers (such as successfully chasing a big total or even setting one...both those games were very low scoring)

With Kenya and Bangladesh given one-day status, the next World Cup will have 5 whipping boys (or maybe 6, if you count the West Indies!) How is that good for cricket?

The World Cup should be a competition between the top teams of the World. Instead, the round robin phase threatens to become an average-enhancing banquet for players from the major teams and will no doubt cause multiple orgasms among statisticians as records get broken left, right and center.

Instead of inviting them to play in the World Cup, the ICC should get the fringe teams such as UAE, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Canada, Scotland etc to take part in the domestic competitions of nearby Test-playing nations. Ireland and Scotland already play in England's domestic one-day competition. Perhaps they, along with the Netherlands, can be asked to play in the four-day games as well. Similarly, UAE, Hong Kong and Malaysia can play in any of the Asian nations. The USA recently traveled to West Indies to take part in a domestic competition. That should become a regular trip.

As for teams in decline such as West Indies, India, New Zealand, England, Zimbabwe and even Bangladesh and Kenya, it might really help to send 'A' teams to each other's domestic tournaments. Also, considering that Australian domestic cricket is so strong that their state sides regularly (and easily) beat touring national sides, maybe 'A' teams can go to Australia and compete there. Its a win-win situation and definitely worth a try.

Postscript: The WICB also said it was looking to take back information technology from India to use in their cricket development. That's a laugh, isn't it? The rest of the world recognizes India's software expertise but our cricket team is only just beginning to utilize this advantage. Talk about wasted potential...

Design: Devyani Chandwarkar
Illustration: Dominic Xavier