This article is spot on

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/567972.html

Yep, yep, and yep.

I don't know what's more tragic- The fact that test cricket is in decline, or that the game's administrators in their actions show us that they clearly don't give a f*ck that it is.

"the biggest trick the IPL has played is that every year an Indian side wins the most-watched, richest tournament in cricket."

It's also tragic (but not surprising) that a great deal of Indian fans are fooled by this.

"When did an English team last win the IPL, huh??"

pmsl

Henry wrote:"the biggest trick the IPL has played is that every year an Indian side wins the most-watched, richest tournament in cricket."

It's also tragic (but not surprising) that a great deal of Indian fans are fooled by this.

"When did an English team last win the IPL, huh??"

To be honest Cricinfo seems infested with Indian correspondents these days.

TBH I cant fault this:

The IPL has not replaced anything in India's calendar; it is an addition to the calendar. And it is played over two months in the Indian summer. It takes up the players' time and energy - physical, mental, emotional. It is said that South African players also play in the IPL and their Test cricket has not deteriorated. It could be argued that they have won only one series at home in the last five years, the significant failure being their batsmen's on seaming tracks in Durban. Is that not linked at all to an excess of T20? It is conveniently forgotten also that when South Africa's opener and captain got injured, he chose to go through with treatment so that he came back ready for Test cricket. A certain India opener knew he needed to go down the same route to come back prepared for a much-anticipated Test series last year, but he chose otherwise. And India's best batsman chose to play in the IPL before proceeding to rest during a Test series in the West Indies, even though he had never won a series there.

He may be shit at present, but I can only applaud Ishant Sharma for choosing to go under the doctor's knife and recover for India's international engagements, when he could have played IPL, made a year's worth of moolah and given a damn if he got chosen immediately in near future. He has shown more integrity than either Sehwag or even Tendulkar did.

Henry wrote:"the biggest trick the IPL has played is that every year an Indian side wins the most-watched, richest tournament in cricket."

It's also tragic (but not surprising) that a great deal of Indian fans are fooled by this.

"When did an English team last win the IPL, huh??"

And can anyone argue differently?

Good article, and it's unfortunate for a proper FC batsman, like Robin Bist, who doesn't play IPL cricket (not very successfully, at least) to not get any time in the limelight. May be good for them in a different way though.

This certainly good and valid and very sad for us:

Aakash Chopra has written about how Indian cricketers practically use first-class cricket to fine-tune their IPL skills. He says that spin had been an area of concern earlier too, but the fall has been dramatic after the advent of T20. A special case in point is Harbhajan, who seems to have developed a phobia of flighting the ball.

Kids are growing up watching spinners dart the ball in, and fast bowlers bowl fast as a variation. In his memoirs of his time as India coach, John Wright wrote about how young Indian players learned a lot of cricket watching it on TV, as opposed to through organised coaching. Nowadays the kids are growing up listening to commentators saying ad nauseam that you can't afford to give the batsmen pace to work with.

Sanjay Manjrekar wrote recently about how India needs to develop bowlers, more than batsmen, to progress in Test cricket. But why exactly will a youngster want to bowl long spells in Test cricket when he is getting paid lakhs for every slower ball he bowls in T20? Domestic coaches say bowlers increasingly go AWOL during the first-class season, and turn up fit for the IPL.

Of course, it is all forgotten come the IPL. Dhoni scores a fifty and suddenly he is a great captain again. Gautam Gambhir wins the IPL and everybody asks him if he is prepared to be Test captain - never mind that he has not scored a Test century in two years. This will sound like pop sociology, but the biggest trick the IPL has played is that every year an Indian side wins the most-watched, richest tournament in cricket. India keeps shining, and India is supposed to supply the world with the largest, most insatiable set of consumers of cola, mobile phones and chewing tobacco. Who cares about defeats? Who nurtures the hurt?

Ouch!

Australia and South Africa are playing two-Test series. South Africa have followed New Zealand in giving up the Boxing Day Test. West Indies, partly because of the IPL, and New Zealand entirely because of the clash with it, are not fielding their best teams in Test cricket. India are not interested in giving their best in Tests.

Yet all we hear is, the IPL and Tests can co-exist. From the boards, from the commentators, from the columnists, and from the players. Everybody, do us a favour. Either do something or stop pretending you care for the aged relative. Why should we bother with Tests between half-strength or half-willing sides? At least let the form die with dignity.

Batman wrote:Ouch!

Australia and South Africa are playing two-Test series. South Africa have followed New Zealand in giving up the Boxing Day Test. West Indies, partly because of the IPL, and New Zealand entirely because of the clash with it, are not fielding their best teams in Test cricket. India are not interested in giving their best in Tests.

Yet all we hear is, the IPL and Tests can co-exist. From the boards, from the commentators, from the columnists, and from the players. Everybody, do us a favour. Either do something or stop pretending you care for the aged relative. Why should we bother with Tests between half-strength or half-willing sides? At least let the form die with dignity.

The guy is a total wanker.

taipan wrote:

Batman wrote:Ouch!

Australia and South Africa are playing two-Test series. South Africa have followed New Zealand in giving up the Boxing Day Test. West Indies, partly because of the IPL, and New Zealand entirely because of the clash with it, are not fielding their best teams in Test cricket. India are not interested in giving their best in Tests.

Yet all we hear is, the IPL and Tests can co-exist. From the boards, from the commentators, from the columnists, and from the players. Everybody, do us a favour. Either do something or stop pretending you care for the aged relative. Why should we bother with Tests between half-strength or half-willing sides? At least let the form die with dignity.

The guy is a total wanker.

Well. India did send a half strength team to WI for tests and then a half fit injured team to Eng due to IPL. Our star players have started choosing IPL over national duty undoubtedly. Even the likes of SRT. Used to be people only played 2 test rubbers against Bangars and Zimboks sometime back.

Of course India [BCCI] took the cake even when we didn't have IPL when we set up one match or two test series against Aus [1996], SA and NZ at home [2000, 2004, 2006 etc.]. And of course we did ask SA and Aus to play a 2 test series a year or more back [when we suddenly won the top test spot and to retain it due to severe media pressure]. Ah hell. I see it now. BCCI was always more wankier.....

The only people who the IPL seems to be popular with is the players and other people paid by the IPL.

BCCI always had it's priorities right. First it was the money generation ODIs and now T20s. The irony is BCCI was the one that didn't like T20s initially and were not ready to commit Indian sides to play them till that misdirected visionary Kapil Dev started the rebel ICL for a rival sports channel and pushed BCCI into it.

So the only difference now is from playing 2 tests and 7 ODis per side, we will degenerate to playing 2 tests [or no tests] to accommodate a world class 7 match T20 bilateral in the same tours.

On a positive note Sami and Best have returned to international cricket

PlanetPakistan wrote:On a positive note Sami and Best have returned to international cricket

50% is a pass.

its 70% in most engineering and math classes

Sami? As in Mohammad Sami?

PlanetPakistan wrote:its 70% in most engineering and math classes

I think the 50% was a vote for Best in all likelihood. Sami's return won't benefit Pak as much.