Hope and despair at the home front

The ills of domestic cricket in India have been well advertised but we tend to overlook the joys of the Ranji Trophy, writes Amrit Mathur.

The ills of domestic cricket in our country have been well advertised but most of us tend to overlook the joys of the Ranji Trophy. First-class cricket is correctly slammed for having too many teams and too little quality, pathetic playing conditions, absence of top players, lack of interest and general irrelevance.

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But, in an obtuse manner, these drawbacks lend a certain charm to domestic cricket. Compared to the dhoom of international games, Ranji is completely different — the contrast as much as between a slow black and white and a slick Don.

The Railway cricket ground, a regular first-class venue, has no stands to speak of, spectators can sit near the boundary and harass the third man fielder if he lets one pass through his legs.

When Railways played MP there, no spectators (except urchins from nearby Paharganj betting minor stakes on cricket to keep themselves busy) were visible, no advertising boards (India's domestic cricket has no sponsors) and no TV cameras. So sleepy was the atmosphere that it could easily have passed off as a C-division game between Vijay Club and Delhi Tigers.

Cricket unfolded in super slow-mo. Even JP Yadav, a known dasher, seemed to be overcome by a virus that made him bat defensively. The wicket, remarkably, had a shade of green — not like Durban but enough for the hosts to play four seamers leaving out Kulamani Parida, their trusted off-spinner.

Normally, the Railway track is the low, slow type which gets lower and slower as the match progresses but on Day One, the MP leggie Golwalkar got a bowl only after tea.

The Railways are in the Plate division, an astonishing slide for the Ranji winners of the year before. The team has an enormous pool of talent available to them, with 50 Railways players representing various Ranji teams. But they act as a generous sprinkler which distributes talent — this means that Jacob Martin and SS Paul can play for their home states of Baroda and Bengal while Yere Goud can captain Karnataka.

The other Ranji match was at the DDCA which — despite the expensive upgrade and ambitious plans — remains a half-finished construction site, and it appears that the concrete monster will take a lot of time, and much more will, before it is completed.

The DDCA ground symbolises much that is wrong with our cricket: Fabulous wealth contrasts with abject poverty, crazy crowd support and hysteria stands next to neglect and extreme disinterest.

The Delhi team is living with its usual chaos. Captain Mithun Manhas, impressively bright and articulate, is looking to raise his team’s performances and the side has a new coach (Chetan Chauhan has replaced Madan Lal and Sarfraz Nawaz was brought in for unclear reasons) and new selectors.

There is fresh thought as well, as reflected in two of the selectors, Atul Wassan and Nikhil Chopra, commentating for TV when the team was playing Tamil Nadu!

Ranji has failed to catch the frenzied attention of fans but ultimately, the strength of Indian cricket lies here, not in the financial muscle of the BCCI. What counts is the nasha of talented youngsters to chase their dreams through this championship, no matter if not many are listening or watching.