Dilip Vengsarkar, Srikkanth Criticize BCCI for Poor Duleep Trophy

Sep 15, 2017 at 1:24 PM

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Dilip Vengsarkar, Srikkanth Criticize BCCI for Poor Duleep Trophy

Former India skippers Dilip Vengsarkar and Krish Srikkanth have expressed their displeasure over the way the current Duleep Trophy is being played. The much coveted domestic trophy has made its way back into the domestic circuit with Sourav Ganguly, and CoA planned to include in the last minute.

However, there has been a lot of criticism on the way the tournament is being played at the moment with a bulk of the top crop players not able to participate due to injuries or illness. Star Sports, who holds the rights for all the domestic games, has decided only to telecast the final of the tournament contrary to telecasting all the games like last season.

Vengsarkar, who acted as the former selector has lashed out at BCCI and criticised the way the format is changed from zones to India Blue, Red and Green.

“The BCCI had made a mockery of the Ranji Trophy by staging it at neutral venues last year, thereby not only killing the interest of local spectators but also ensured that the players travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to participate in first-class matches,” Vengsarkar told TOI.

“Not to be outdone, from last year, the technical committee changed the format of the most prestigious tournament of the BCCI, the Duleep Trophy by doing away with the zonal system with three teams, India Red, Green and Blue. The Duleep Trophy is supposed to be the most prestigious tournament of the BCCI, and more often than not, the selectors picked the national squads after watching the zonal matches, played by the cream of Indian players,” he added.

He also recalled the days when Duleep Trophy was played at the highest level. Back in 2008, BCCI managed to invite England A team to play in the prestigious tournament which increased the level of the game in the domestic circuit. He said:

“I remember in 2008; the BCCI had invited the England A team as the sixth team in the competition, apart from five zonal teams. The England A team had the likes of [Andrew] Flintoff, [Andrew] Strauss and Monty Panesar. As a result, the standard of cricket went up, and domestic players got tested. “


“Since international cricket is packed with tours and home games, the ideal time to stage the Duleep matches would have been in July-August either at Bangalore or Hyderabad or at Chennai where it doesn’t rain during the time. India Red, Blue and Green, to me, makes no sense.”
Concurring with Vengsarkar, Srikkanth said,


“The Duleep Trophy should be given prime importance. It’s a premier domestic event which is just one step below international cricket. As a player, you want to play for your Ranji team, then in the Duleep Trophy, and from there for Rest of India, or God willing, India. We should go back to playing it in the zonal format, instead of dividing teams into India Red, India Blue and India Green. There’s a different charm and feel to playing for your zone.”

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