BCCI must ensure players don't do a Dhoni

The Kanga League is 60 years old and we are proud of it. It was the great Vijay Merchant's idea to launch this league aimed essentially to prepare the batsmen for the tough conditions that they confronted in England.

Wet pitches were a menace for the Indian batsmen when playing in England and the Kanga league provided a platform to develop your skills. Merchant confessed that the Kanga league experience helped him improve as a batsman.

I grew up watching matches in the Kanga league and what a galaxy of stars it attracted. Nari Contractor, Budhi Kunderan, Naren Tamhane, Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajit Wadekar, Subhash Gupte, Ramakant Desai, Vijay Manjrekar, Dilip Sardesai, VS Patil, Ramnath Kenny… In later years, I enjoyed playing in the Kanga league, which stages 49 matches in a day in different divisions and on different grounds. The conditions vary and that is what makes you develop your overall cricket skills.

The Kanga league has been a popular and significant feature of cricket in Mumbai. It is a pity that none of the other associations in India have tried to introduce this concept of playing on uncovered pitches in monsoon. It helps a cricketer prepare better for the tough conditions in international cricket.

Talking of preparations, I would like to refer to my notes in my recent column when I questioned the wisdom of a short camp ahead of the Tests series in Sri Lanka. Preparations and a proper itinerary are very crucial for a team which is expected to do well overseas. Look at how unprofessional India has looked in Colombo.

A tough match is a must before the series begins. Earlier a team was given two or three practice matches for the players to acclimatize but even one proper fixture is a luxury now. A match against a weak team would instil a sense of overconfidence and that is one reason why the BCCI should have insisted on a competitive match before the Test series against Sri Lanka.

It boils downs to shaping a player and that can come over a period of time. You can't expect a player to get into the rhythm overnight. You can't be playing limited overs cricket most of the time and suddenly dive into a Test match without adequate preparation. All captains have been complaining about the tiring itinerary that players are faced with in these times.

The players have been stretched to an extent that they have lost the zeal for the game. When someone like MS Dhoni opts out of a Tests series then it is time to seriously look at the issue of burn-out.

The administrators have to constantly look at improving the standard of the game and that can come only from the participation of the top names. I would like the administrators to work towards making Dhoni play Test cricket and not create situations where he would be compelled to take a decision like sitting out. Dhoni will have his reasons for taking such a tough decision and it is for the administrators to ensure it does not recur.

The BCCI has an example in Australia, which looks after the players well. The players, on their part, respond by staying fresh. We have not known a top Australian player opting out of a Test series on account of fatigue. The BCCI will have to give greater thought to this aspect of international cricket. It will be sad if more and more players choose to go the Dhoni way and decide to miss a Test series.