The BCCI's Chickens Come Home To Roost
Dhoni - sorely missed in the Test series.
On paper, India have the world's best Test team at present. Cricket's most attacking opening pair backed up by four of the best batsmen of their era and an excellent wicketkeeper, followed by four top-class bowlers.
It's not just that - they also have all the right combinations with a left-hand, right-hand opening partnership, a left-arm, right-arm combo opening the bowling and two spinners who turn the ball in opposite directions.
In theory it's a dream come true - the perfect formula - so why, then, have they just lost the series to Sri Lanka?
Don't get me wrong, Sri Lanka are a fine side who are tough to beat on their home turf, as well as (rather unfairly) being the country to unearth a spinner who could go on to match Muttiah Muralitharan's devastating effect. Ajantha Mendis fulfilled all expectations in this series.
But they shouldn't be walking over India in the way they just did. Two-one does not point to a walk-over but India's victory in the second Test was essentially down to two players - Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh - with Gautam Gambhir playing a supporting role.
Since the beginning of last year India have played 19 Test matches and 58 one-day internationals. Australia have played just 10 Test matches and 49 one-day internationals, with the latter figure only coming close to India's due to their victorious World Cup campaign.
With the BCCI looking to constantly milk the cash cow that is the national team, fixtures are continually being squeezed in to leave very little time for players to recuperate. The above figures do not even take into consideration the Twenty20 World Cup and strenuous Indian Premier League, and while players may be ever keener to get their own share of the burgeoning money pots on offer, the simple fact is that the national players are being pushed too far.
The effects are all too clear - India looked listless for much of the Test series and their fielding was short of even club cricket standards. The older players can't seem to keep up, if their performances in this series are anything to go by. Mahendra Dhoni was sitting at home, spent after long stints of meaningless cricket, and India suffered hugely as a result of his absence behind the stumps.
By the end of the deciding Test in Colombo, the tourists had three injured players on the sidelines nursing injuries. They may have been largely due to bumps rather than strains, but it still took one's mind back to the first day of the year, when team physio John Gloster published a 14-page report explaining why the side suffered a "high percentage of 'niggles' and treatable injuries".
Gloster revealed that players were not being allowed adequate time for physical conditioning in between tours and called for "greater rest, rehab and conditioning phases between tours. This is particularly relevant for those players playing both forms of the game and never being able to sufficiently rest and recover from 'niggles'. This has meant that a number of players are consistently carrying problems from tour to tour."
As India continue to jump from one tour to the next, it appears that Gloster's report has been brushed aside by the BCCI. After five ODIs in Sri Lanka the side will scurry across to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan. That could occupy them until September 28, yet the BCCI still want to squeeze in the Twenty20 Champions League between then and the first Test at home to Australia on October 9.
This sort of abuse of sportsmen to further economic gains is madness, and completely unsustainable in the long run. If Gloster's report is anything to go by, the result will be serious injuries to top players and particularly the fast bowlers.
Clearly the BCCI's chickens have come home to roost, and one has to wonder: if they want to run the world game, shouldn't they get their own house in order first?
Tristan Holme