It146;s pouring cash

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has been composing a new way of asserting its supremacy. It holds that since India brought the largest numbers of viewers to the game and by far the highest advertising revenues, it should have much more say in setting the cricket calendar. Australia8217;s primacy in setting the schedule in the Indian winter and England8217;s in the summer is reflective of the global order many decades ago. So, for instance, Australia must reschedule the traditional Boxing Day Test in Melbourne to allow India to accommodate a Pakistan tour this winter. But given the manner in which the team was rushed to Bangladesh for the current series, it is clear that all this muscle flexing is simply a cover for managing ever more matches in the international calendar. It is, put simply, greed that dictates scheduling, not any loftier intent to privilege India in the decision-making structure.

It is important to appreciate the context in which Rahul Dravid complained of too much cricket being crammed into the coming months. This is, remember, a terrible phase for individual members of the team. They have, as a collective, been losing far too many matches, matches that should have been theirs even on an indifferent day in the park. As individuals, if they happen to be batsmen, each of them risks his place in the side if he appears less than eager to turn out in the India cap. Seniors like Dravid know that if they are to complain during this bad patch, they could be simply told to make way for younger players 8212; among whom the competition is so irrationally adjudged that they in turn know silence is the better part of valour. Bowlers are too stricken by injury and bad form, they know to complain of a workload is to court eviction from the team.

In this year when there are plans to carry the team to places like Ireland and advance the winter Test playing season at home, when the bench strength is so weak that for a regular to excuse himself to catch his breath is seen to be akin to lack of patriotism, Dravid has been brave and true to the game for bringing up the subject. Be honest, could you possibly have enjoyed a match in Chittagong in the rainy season? Not unless you derive gross and perverse pleasure from watching the top brass of the BCCI fixing surreptitious rendezvous to recruit the hosts8217; coach.