Rahul Dravid feels that Indian cricket has become "extremely powerful" as talented players from across the country have access to platforms where they can showcase their aptitude.
Dravid believes that the overall standard of domestic cricket has also grown in leaps and bounds and no team can be taken lightly in any of the domestic tournaments.
"If you look at Indian cricket today, Indian cricket is extremely strong, it's extremely powerful," Dravid was quoted as saying by PTI during the 50-year celebration of Mount Joy Cricket Club. "One of the big reasons for that is that talent comes from everywhere, from all over the country."
"If you go back to the time of, say, GR Vishwanath or even when I was starting out, most of the talent came from the big cities or a few states.
"Even if there were talented boys in smaller places, they had to come to the big cities to play cricket. But today I think you see in Indian cricket that boys are coming from everywhere."
The former India head coach cited the example of how South Zone was dominated by players from Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu but the scenario has changed drastically over the years and players from other southern states have also made their presence felt.
"You just look at the standard of the Ranji Trophy. In the old days when you played in the South Zone, other than playing Hyderabad or Tamil Nadu, I think it is fair to say, without being disrespectful, that a lot of other teams you could take it not for granted but you could certainly take it a little bit more lightly.
"I don't think there is any team in the South Zone today that you can walk in and say you will beat comfortably."
The former India captain emphasized the significance of club culture and mentioned that there needs to be a uniform distribution of quality infrastructure everywhere in the country for Indian cricket to prosper.
"We need clubs to be strong. We need cricket not to be concentrated in the hands of a few people. We need cricket to be egalitarian, we need it to be all over the place.
"You cannot have talent or facilities concentrated only in one or two places. To get the best out of talent, we need to ensure that young boys and girls are getting access to good infrastructure in every part."
