Yes, I am tired and need a break, but my franchise won't let me take one," a leading Indian cricketer confessed, slap bang in the middle of this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) season, in a brief private conversation. A little taken aback by the revelation, I asked, So why don't you ask BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] to intervene?" "You really think the board will stand up for cricketers' rights ahead of the franchise owners? This is India, not Australia or England!" said the player. End of conversation.
The lengthy post-mortem examination into yet another defeat for the Indian cricket team in a major global tournament has focused on the on-field decisions taken during the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, including the inexplicable omission of top-ranked bowler, R Ashwin, from the final eleven. But queries over the game plan don't address the elephant in the room: This was a woefully under-prepared Indian team for a match that was hyped as the ultimate test. Imagine a team coming for a marquee match-up with barely a week's practice in England and without a single warm-up game. As skipper Rohit Sharma candidly admitted, the team might have fared better with more red-ball match time.
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