Club Vs. Country & The Tour to the Caribbean - My Two Cents

The World Champs on their First tour. 

A stand in Captain and Five heroes of the dream run are missing. 

Club versus Country is being shouted out from every website that cares about Cricket.

April 3rd 2011, just 2 months back I wrote one of my most emotional blogs about Indian Cricket. Pride oozed through my veins as Team India lifted the cup & brought joy to a nation.

But even before it could all sink in, the biggest T20 cricket league set in motion a cricket overdose. 90+ games played between 10 city teams. In the past anyone who enjoys cricket would have followed the IPL with a lot of passion. But this time around, fatigue set in. Even worse was the fact that a lot of the players were wearing different jerseys this time around, you lost touch with the teams. I guess another aspect of this is that I am writing about Indian cricket, sitting in another country. Away from the hungama & action back home. Am sure I'd be watching the matches in the evening if I was there, cheering the Super Kings to victory. Instead I was looking at the points table and hoping the Gayle force didn't knock the stuffing out of Chennai. (it was fun seeing him bowled for a duck)

But it was not that IPL caused the stir. It was players choosing to play the IPL instead of taking a break and coming back refreshed for the West Indies tour. Six big names, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj & Ghambir had to sit out of the tour for different reasons. Injury & Fatigue.

Think back a few weeks before we realized that Ghambir and Yuvraj would not be playing either. Not everyone was upset at the entire team. Club vs. Country debates were not as heated. The tour was being looked at in a very different light. It was an opportunity for Ghambir to seal his spot as the next in line for captaincy. A chance for the world cup hero Yuvraj to make a permanent spot in the test side (something he has tried to do ever since Ganguly retired). But then they got injured while playing the IPL. That's when everyone posed their arguments on what mattered more. Club or Country?

Of course Country matters more. It matters more because of the pride involved. It matters more because of the affect it has on the team's ranking. It matters more because of the joy it provides an entire nation. And it matters because we don't think about all the money that's involved in the sport when someone represents the country. We don't think if they have alterer motives when they play for Team India. But when the same player comes out to bat for the Super Kings or  the Knight Riders, we smell the money. But there's the problem. That's what the IPL is about. A chance for the players to make a lot of money, while providing us entertainment in the evening. If in the process a player gets injured or chooses to play a few league games after a long world cup campaign, we shouldn't grudge the players that much.

With the amount of cricket Team India plays, it's about time a Player Rotation policy was instituted. How long can we depend on 6 to 10 players. Yes a Core is needed. But it should be a core of 20 if not 30 players. Barring the opening slot, each of the players replacing players is matched player for player.

West Indies is a team like India in the '90s. You never know what will happen. When playing against a team such as them, it does not matter if the Top 6 are there or not. The youngsters can win on their own. Or lose to a blinding spell of cricket by the Windes. We need to give them a chance to prove their mettle. Maybe Kholi will be the man to fill the gap when Sachin or Dravid finally say adieu. Raina may shoulder more responsibility with captaincy and become a mainstay in the team. And the new comers will provide the bench strength for the future challenges in England and Australia.

Other Views:


An Interesting Article was by Harsha Bhogle on the similar subject. He has a point. It's the players decision not the boards.

Tom Alter on the other hand, had nothing good to say about all the players taking rest. I'm not sure I agree with anything he said.


At the end of the day, if we really want the best team on the field all the time, we need to have some gap between the tours, or build a bench that's the best at all times.

Rahul.