India v England, 4th Test, Ranchi, 23-27 February, 2024

Oh well - India wins.

Jurel seems to be a find.

England also seem to have a couple of decent spinners for the first time since Swann’s cataclysmic decline.

I feel we lost this when we allowed India to go from 177-7 to 307. The best teams rarely let the fish off the hook that easily and from there on i only saw one winner and it's happened. Stokes unable to bowl has had a big impact on selection i feel, also. Purely as a batter i'm not sure he's the best we have at 5. Oh well, the 4-1 i predicted after winning the opener looks right alas. Will India be a little on the back foot for test 5?

Yup, Jor-El was the difference. He rescued India from that perilous position in the 1st innings and did the same from India at 5-120 in the 2nd.

Reading the commentary, it looks like there were one or two near wickets (close lbws, running mix ups, beaten edges) but no missed chances by England.

Looks like Shub and Jor-El did it reasonably comfortably.

skully wrote:Yup, Jor-El was the difference. He rescued India from that perilous position in the 1st innings and did the same from India at 5-120 in the 2nd.

Was he voted MOTM?

Surprised it was not Bunter Bairstow after his masterful pair of 30s. Ollie Pope was not a contender.

Well done India on a good win. Thought England showed a bit of spine in this one. Terrific Root has evidently told McCullum to gagf.

That was ok.

On a parallel note f@ck Ishant Kishan and Iyer for preferring hit and giggle practice over FC games . Ishant in particular, ar$ey qunt. I hope they end his Test and ODI career over this.

And good on Rohit for calling them out.

And on yet another parallel note the public response (outrage) has been heartening. Whatever the craze for IPL here, however much of a whinging qunt fest you may think us to be as fans, Test cricket is still a priority here.

And both lose their central contracts.

Aye. Well done Aquacker.

Furry, are those central contracts worth big coin?

horace wrote:Aye. Well done Aquacker.

Furry, are those central contracts worth big coin?

First, a bit of context. By the way there are links in my previous post as well, in case the weren’t apparent on people’s browsers.

Right. It was being perceived that some players in India were beginning to prioritise IPL over other cricket.  The BCCI sent out an unprecedented warning to the players in a letter written by Jay Shah.  See link below, but I’ll quote that warning in detail because it makes for great reading IMO.  

Link

"there is a trend that has started to emerge and is a cause for concern. Some players have begun prioritising the IPL over domestic cricket, a shift that was not anticipated. Domestic cricket has always been the foundation upon which Indian cricket stands, and it has never been undervalued in our vision for the sport.

It is essential to recognise that domestic cricket forms the backbone of Indian cricket and serves as the feeder line to Team India. Our vision for Indian cricket has been clear from the outset - every cricketer aspiring to play for India must prove themselves in domestic cricket. Performance in domestic tournaments remains a critical yardstick for selection, and non-participation in domestic cricket will carry severe implications."

Ishan and Iyer got done because they ignored this shot across the bows. And for once almost uniformly Indian fans are cheering for the BCCI.  Which in turn means almost uniformly Indian fans are putting FC duties over IPL.  Which should be heartening for fans everywhere.

For Iyer and Ishant financial implications may significant, but not crippling, in the short term.  The BCCI’s contract structure pays out (top to bottom) approximately in pounds, 700k (A+), 500k (A), 300k (B) and 100k (C)

Assuming that they would have been in category B, that’s a loss of 300k pounds.  Iyer will make 1.2 million and Ishan 1.5 million pounds from IPL this year (if they play all games). So we’re talking a loas of 16-20 percent of direct sports income (advertisement revenues are separate).  And these losses are of  guaranteed revenues, unlike IPL which is not okay and get paid.

Arguably Iyer and Ishan  can say f@ck off to the BCCI and stick to an IPL only career, but as I said that will hugely impact their advertisement earnings (multiple times what they earn as players). And that’s where it will hit hard. Because few of any advertisers will fully value a player who doesn’t play nationals.

Being out of the contract list also means they don’t get the key training or free medical facilities, or insurance cover (for example Shami was paid by BCCI when he missed out the IPL due to injury from national duties).  

But that’s on the surface.  The fact that they’re not in the contract list means they’re not automatically up for consideration for national teams. They will have to fight their way from scratch to force themselves into consideration, so to speak, in the domestics anyway.  And that’s a huge blow because  nationals is where it’s at in terms of advertisement money, exposure, growth.

And look who they’re now competing against (the contract players) as outsiders:

Grade A+ (4 Athletes)

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Athletes)

R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 Athletes)

Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (15 Athletes) Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.

That’s a who’s who of Indian cricket.  Best of luck getting a spot in the nationals competing with these guys, when they have contracts and you don’t.

And thats not all.  This year Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have been dropped (non performance, loss of form) so at least some of these guys will also be fighting for a spot. Guys like Bhuvneshwar Kumar lurking around as well.  

So Ishan and Iyer may go a season or two on the IPL alone but it’s a very tenuous existence, especially as the BCCI doesn’t permit Indian players to compete in foreign T20 tournaments.  

What’s more important is that this is a clear warning to all Indian aspirants.  Do not pass Go, do not f@ck with domestics.  And what’s more heartening is the public support for BCCI; till now I haven’t come across a single article, or even a comment  on social media that doesn’t support the BCCI.  

Don’t get me wrong, the India. public will still  turn up in tens of thousands to cheer  an IPL game, and you will always hear the sound of crickets in FC tournaments.  But when push comes to shove,  ain’t no IPL game or team so big in India that players can do what they like with domestic long form FC.  Yeah Ishan and Iyer touched a nerve.

You guys (western fans) should be very happy.  A qunt (Jay Shah) representing a quntish organisation lays done the law in favour of long form FC cricket, to hit and giggle cricket loving qunts (Iyer and Ishant), while said organisation is cheered (for once) by hundreds of thousands of qunts (As per you guys, Indian fans), and no sound of jet engines in the background.  

So in short, so many qunts have qunted,  in the end it all turned out to be one giant positive. It’s probably a law of physics.  Or Thermodynamics.  Or something.
’

Thanks so much for that. It is indeed heartening.