Letter of the Day

In a country of a billion, is it impossible to find about forty good, young and eager cricket players who can be groomed to play international cricket and represent India? Even small countries like Sril Lanka can do it, why can't India?

We should firstly insist that all cricket players should play in the domestic tournaments and each player should be asked to play a minimum number of matches to be considered for any international representation.

This would also entail that the local players also would be given the opportunity to play with and against players of international experience.

Further more the present system of playing too many ODIs and Tests is not only putting a lot of stress and strain on the players but also causing a lot of injuries.

All this so that the Board can make a lot of money!

And also by sticking to the same set of about 15 or 16 players, the players also seem to becoming complacent and more interested in making more money and if one looks at the whole busines of cricket recently, leaving aside the match-fixng etc, it gets to be apparent that it is all about making more money than making more runs and getting wickets and winning!

What we need to do is set up two teams and not say which one or a mix of both or none will be sent on an international tour, the whole complacency will vanish and the standard will be better.

All the present cricketers are very complacent and the rest who really deserve a good chance to play big cricket do not get theirs and slowly fade away.

When the players are subjected to less cricket abroad and at the same time the schedules are not cut but more players are given the chance of playing international cricket and the others are asked to play national cricket, the overall standard will improve and India will and should become a bigger force than it is now.

Rao.D.V.