Team India men’s head coach Rahul Dravid has called for an “all-round review” of the country’s long domestic season which made headlines recently after R Sai Kishore and Shardul Thakur opened up for this. However, while speaking after the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Mumbai, Shardul opined on how it was “extremely tough on domestic players to play 10 games in a row with just a three-day gap” and how the BCCI needs to have a “re-look at it and give longer breaks” as well. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu captain Sai Kishore had also opened up on the bowlers trying to adapt.
Dravid, speaking after India’s 4-1 series win over England in Dharamsala, said it was “important” to listen to the players who put in the hard yards.
“I’ve heard the same as well. I saw some of the comments Shardul, I think, made. And in fact some of the boys who’ve come into the team as well, also comment about how tough the domestic schedule is, especially in a country like India with the amount of travel involved. So yeah, we need to hear the players. That’s a very important thing in a lot of these things,” Rahul Dravid said. “You need to hear your players, because they are the ones going through the grind and putting their bodies on the line, and if there are enough voices saying that, then yeah, I think there’s some need to look at it, and see how we can manage our schedules.”
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However, Rahul Dravid added how “tough” the season can be for domestic players and they wanted a have a look at whether some of the tournaments are “necessary in this day and age”.
“It’s a long season already in India. It’s tough,” Dravid said. “The Ranji Trophy is a long season, and if you add a Duleep and a Deodhar on top of that…Last year, if I’m not mistaken, the Duleep started in June, it was just a month after the IPL, and your problem in this situation is your best players, the guys who are pushing for selection for India, are the ones that end up playing the most cricket. Because they keep getting selected at the next level, more and more, and their teams are the ones probably who are playing the semi-finals and the finals, or that kind of situation,” Rahul Dravid said.
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“They are the ones who end up playing a lot of cricket, and you also want them to be playing for India, and India A tours, and so it can get quite tough on a lot of those boys, and maybe we need to hear them out. Maybe we need to re-look and see whether some of the tournaments that we are conducting are necessary in this day and age or if they are not necessary. There needs to be an all-round review [involving] coaches and players, especially the guys who are part of the domestic circuit,” Rahul Dravid concluded.
