Senior India and Mumbai all-rounder Shardul Thakur has called out Ranji Trophy's gruelling scheduling urging the BCCI to take a relook at it given the packed schedules all across the board with regards to IPL, international cricket and first-class cricket. Shardul, who smashed his maiden first-class century in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu lifting Mumbai to 290/9 from 106/7 before he was dismissed, was candid after stumps on Day 2 at the Sharad Pawar Academy in BKC saying that there will be a lot of injuries in the future to the players if the scheduling is not looked at.
Thakur labelled the current Ranji Trophy as 'difficult' where players just three days between games to manage. "If boys keep playing like this for two more seasons, there will be a lot of injuries across the country," Thakur said on Sunday, March 3.
"Next year, they [the BCCI] have to re-look at it, and give more [of a] break. When I remember playing Ranji Trophy back in the day, good seven to eight years back, [the] first three games used to have [a] three-day break, and then it was [a] four-day break, and knockouts were played [with] five-day breaks," Thakur added.
A team that goes to the final will be playing 10 red-ball matches in a span of just a little over two months and games last 4-5 days on most Indian tracks in the Ranji Trophy and Thakur's words will definitely be food for thought for the BCCI. As, not just the fatigue from the games, travel across the length and breadth of the country in those three days apart from recovery takes a toll on the players' bodies.
The window for domestic cricket has gotten smaller with the IPL stretching to 74 games and is likely to get even shorter with the league set to increase to 94 matches.
"Also, when nine teams were in the group [in the old format], one team would get a break in [the] round-robin system. Now with only eight teams being in one group, everyone plays each other, so that [extra] break has gone now." Thakur said while giving Mumbai's example when the pacer Mohit Awasthi sustained an injury in the sixth game due to an increased workload with Tushar Deshpande called up for India A.
