By Syed Khalid Mahmood
As they say excess of anything is bad. The Indian cricketers have undoubtedly been in huge demand over the last few years in particular and their authorities have kept them engaged literally round the clock.
The excessive workload can have negative impact that there’s every possibility of India’s performance suffering in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 in England because their cricketers have had very little time to relax after the grueling second edition of the high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL) that lasted over a month in South Africa.
All the 15 members of the Indian squad, who are preparing to board the flight to England, were engaged in the IPL 2009 and they had returned home just a few days ago. They certainly deserved a reasonable break after having been in action in the most demanding format of the game for well over a month.
The present lot of Indian cricketers is indeed immensely talented and incredibly tough mentally but they are after all human beings and not machines. With the added pressure of having to defend the title they won in South Africa a couple of years ago, they will have to come up with something extraordinary to do the business once more.
The Indians certainly appear the strongest team in the world for the Twenty20 games on paper but extending their top form on a continuous basis could be a very tall order even for them.
But what they forgot was the fact that the Twenty20 cricket had exploded in India only after their team had won the inaugural World Cup in 2007. It was the triumph that led a turnaround.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was born soon after India had been crowned as the world champions in Twenty20 cricket. There was an unprecedented boom and cricket had come alive in the country that had gone into a state of mourning following the debacle of their fancied team in the Caribbean just a few months ago.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), for some reasons, didn’t own the ICL and the International Cricket Council (ICC) was not left with any other option than to lend support to the Indian Board.
The movers and shakers in the BCCI came out with their own brand of Twenty20 cricket that led to the creation of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
They mobilized all their resources to produce something that was nothing short of sensational. The game of cricket was taken to another level by the IPL.
The IPL has indeed done a favour to the Indian cricket as it has provided a solid platform for their upcoming as well as established campaigners to showcase their talents to an international audience.
But it’s up to the BCCI to decide whether they could also compromise their national interests by promoting the IPL. Hosting the tournament so close to the ICC World Twenty20 looked a debatable move.
0 comments
Post a Comment