Stars missing from West Indies tour.

 

 West Indies tour is starting right after the IPL and first T20 game will be played on 4th June. Indian have to play 1 T20 game, 5 ODIs and 3 test matches on the tour of West Indies. Hence it is very important tour and it is the first International tour for the Team India after World Cup.

Indian team is playing cricket non-stop since last one year and this tour of West Indies have also come at the time when Indian players will be completely drained out after playing IPL for almost 2 months in hot Indian summer. So six star players have requested BCCI to give them rest after IPL, these players  Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. So that means India will play with ‘B’ team on the tour of West Indies atleast for the T20 game and ODI series. Except Virender Sehwag, rest of them will feature in Test Series. Virender Sehwag was supposed to go under knife for his shoulder problem right after the World Cup but delayed it, just  to play in IPL. So he will undergo surgery after IPL and will probably miss entire West Indies tour.

Now looking at cricket board and players attitude it looks like playing for franchisees is more important than playing for the country. This clearly suggest BCCI is greedy after money and also forcing players to run after the money.  No doubt Sehwag is a big player but it is not wise on his part to jeopardize his international cricket career for few franchisee bucks. He had the option of opting out of the IPL but he decided to play in IPL knowing that he will miss the entire  West Indies tour which is more important than IPL. So this clearly shows that player like Sehwag runs after money rather than playing for the country which is biggest honour for any sports person. Same apply to the other players who has requested to opt out from the Caribbean tour. BCCI is also equally responsible for this.

Looking at this year’s schedule of Indian team, Team India will go to England directly from the West Indies. After England tour Champions League T20 is scheduled. Right after Chamipons League, West Indies will tour India  followed by England. After two home series Team India will travel to Australia for ODI and Test Series and BCCI is also planning to schedule 3 or 5 match ODI series with Pakistan in October or November. So not a single month spared. So non-stop cricket will continue for next 12 months. Players can easily opt out from the IPL if they are injured but big money attracts them to play in IPL. Its good platform for the youngsters but it is not good for the players who are playing in Team India because it increase lot of work load which will cut short their careers because body also have its limitations and in absence of experience and skillful players National team’s performance will also suffer.

There is one advantage of such busy schedule, youngsters who are playing in domestic cricket and performing well, get the chance to play for the country if senior players opt for the rest. It will be a huge opportunity for the youngsters to perform well in the absence of the seniors and cement their place in the team. So if six of our players not going to West Indies then it will provide opportunities to the players like Rohit Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Paul Valthaty, Robin Utthappa, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Manoj Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, R.Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra. If chairman of selector don’t use his veto power and get the players like Murali Vijay in the team,  then only these deserving players have a chance. So seniors opting out from the West Indies tour can prove to be a blessing in disguise as well.

Too much cricket will definitely reduce its charm and there is saturation point for everything and cricket is also in the reach of saturation. But whom to blame. Players are contracted with BCCI and BCCIs soul aim is to make money at any cost.