Will Ganguly never play for Bengal at Eden Gardens again?

In the last few days between Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s heroics in Australia and BCCI’s wrangling with Sahara in India, a very interesting, if perplexing, bit of news has slipped under the carpet. In his address to the media on BCCI president N Srinivasan spoke mainly about the Sahara sponsorship issue and towards the end of his speech very quietly mentioned that it was decided that the league phase of Ranji Trophy matches will be played at neutral venues. The decision still needs the go ahead of the Technical committee, chaired by Sourav Ganguly, which is meeting on 17 February. But even the suggestion seems preposterous. So if the BCCI goes ahead with the experiment, what does this really mean for the neglected Ranji Trophy? It means that the khadoos cricketers of Mumbai won’t play at Wankhede or the MCA recreation centre or the DY Patil stadium; it means that Delhi won’t play at Feroze Shah Kotla; it means Tamil Nadu won’t play at Chepauk. It means Ganguly, who is still playing Ranji Trophy, may never play at the Eden Gardens for Bengal again. It means the only time we will see Rahul Dravid play at Bangalore is for IPL and India. It means a lot of things and most of them are just wrong. [caption id=“attachment_214595” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“File picture India’s former cricket captain Ganguly smiles before the start of a Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu in Kolkata. Reuters”] [/caption] It also means that in the near future – Mumbai and Assam might be battling for points in Dharamshala without any soul watching the game. No former cricketers, no parents, no under-19, under-17 cricket. Nothing of the sort. It also means that the BCCI will bring an end to the ‘home and away’ format – a system that has worked across sports, across the world. For good and for bad, it also remains the only agreeable way to run a league. The factors that have supposedly forced the BCCI’s hand and prompted BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to come up with this plan of action all point to doctored pitches. The BCCI’s proposal is radical to say the least. Because what it also means is that then India too should play all its matches at neutral venues. Dhoni and Co like playing on turning tracks and that’s what they get. Isn’t that unfair too? The BCCI also believes since no one watches the Ranji Trophy anyway, it doesn’t make a difference where it is played. Well, no one is watching the India Test matches either. So… The whole idea of home and away is to get players used to the idea of playing on grounds before they play international cricket; to take a player out of his comfort zone and make him perform in opposition territory and that’s easier said than done. But with this proposal every match becomes an ‘away’ match for both teams. There is another way to solve this problem. As things stand, the curators are paid by the home associations – so in essence, the curators answer to the home association. To change things all the BCCI needs to do is get all the best curators on their payroll. And that should ensure that the home side has no advantage. Indian cricket doesn’t need neutral venues, it needs neutral curators and that is what the BCCI needs to understand. Not just at the Ranji level, but even when India play at home. We need good cricket wickets, not doctored pitches. Another thing, the BCCI could do is adopt England & Wales Cricket Board’s idea of deducting points from the home team’s account for a poor pitch. They did that last year when they docked Hampshire eight County Championship points for a pitch that “demonstrated excessive turn”. That should also ensure that the associations stay in line. The proposal even took members of the technical committee by surprise. One of them, while speaking to Firstpost said: “Most of us don’t like the idea but we don’t really have any veto powers. We can only make a recommendation.” “The problem with the pitches may also be arising because these days even under-19 and under-21 matches are played on the turf wickets. Add the T20 matches also and you basically don’t have enough time to produce top quality pitches. We need to, in fact, restrict the Ranji matches to Test venues alone,” the source on the technical committee added. “What happens right now is that the BCCI pitch and committee’s curator checks the pitch a day before the game, signs the paper and goes. But between then and the match, a lot can change.” But strangely enough, for once Ranji teams will hope that the BCCI’s proposal will be stayed. This is change that Ranji cricket could do without.