SO, the Deodhar Trophy has been given a quiet burial by the BCCI. Yes, lucre is the lubricant in this age of commerce. Instead we have something called the Corporate Trophy featuring 12 teams to be spiked to 16 next year. Is this the beginning of the end of the zonal system in Indian cricket is the larger question that is thrown into stark relief?
Will the Deodhar Trophy make a comeback next year? Well I doubt very much. For if you are going to have an IPL running over 45 days, a T20 Champions League, an ICC mandated FTP (Future Tours Programme), an annual Corporate Trophy, then where will there ever be time for poor old Deodhar Trophy? Consigned to a page in history, then? Very much so. The Deodhar Trophy, a 50 over zonal tournament was one of the blue riband tourneys in modern India – along with the Ranji, Irani and Duleep Trophies. Started in 1973-74, this is the first time that the tournament has been junked. Replaced by the first ever Corporate Trophy, where Sahara India is coughing up Rs 60 million for the title sponsorship rights and Neo Sports Broadcast has got the worldwide rights on a revenue share basis.
Interestingly, the Deodhar Trophy was for long India’s only 50 over tournament till the NKP Salve Challenger was started. The Challenger was started in 1994-95 as a day and nighter. Unlike the Deodhar Trophy, the Salve Challenger featured only three sides – Indian Srs, India A and India B which later became India Blue, Red and Green. And the Deodhar was representative of a changing power equation in Indian cricket from the very beginning.
All the five zones have won the trophy and West’s dominance has been limited in this form of cricket in India. They have only won it seven times. The North Zone has won it 11 times. I am concerned about the larger malaise which is the end of the zonal system in India. So, will we junk the Duleep Trophy next? We can always offer the lack of time in our cricket packed schedule as the excuse. Which brings me to something that needs to be addressed very quickly and it is unfortunate that no one is raising Cain on this matter.
Complicity. Are television broadcasters and sponsors dictating our cricket scheduling agenda? At the end of the day the sponsor/broadcaster collective is a powerful one in all sport. More so in Indian cricket. The sponsor reckons that if he is putting big bucks behind a tournament, then he should get the best bang for the buck.
Similarly, the broadcaster doesn’t want to lug tonnes of equipment around the countryside to show matches (like the Deodhar Trophy live) if nobody is willing to watch them. My colleague Sunil Narula has written a story saying that Sahara is putting some serious money behind the inaugural Corporate Trophy and the BCCI is guaranteeing the participation of all the stars in the tourney.
What does that tell you? That the nexus between the BCCI-broadcasters-sponsors is calling the shots. Then you would argue, why not? Yes, why not, everyone needs to protect his investment. But in the process are we walking the primrose path or are these changes good for our cricket? The IPL is an unqualified success both commercially and in terms of viewership.
Has it thrown up new gene pools of talent. I think the answer is in the affirmative. But are these young guns who are getting quick fix recognition the staying type, do they have the necessary talent and potential to be long term servants of Indian cricket? Or like moths to the flame, will they disintegrate far too quickly? We have seen how Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and even Yusuf Pathan despite his swagger were exposed against short pitched bowling in the shortest form of the game. The board had to yell SOS and call up Dravid and Tendulkar for the Sri Lanka tri series and the more important ICC Champions Trophy.
Are we getting ahead of the eight ball in this quest for rabid commercialism? Are we disregarding the importance of institutions like the Deodhar Trophy? Will we see the Duleep or the Irani also be given a similar burial? You can turn around the ask me – why do I have a probelm with that? One has to be in sync with time and if the moment in time requires hard decisions like this, then so be it. But there is something called convention. Cricket is about a code and convention despite all the crass innovations that have been thought to tarnish its pristine purity.
Cricket in India was played on religious lines, so we had the Pentangular first. What started out as a match between the Europeans and the Parsis (The Presidency match), then acquired a different hue with the entry of the Hindus (Hindu Gymkhana) and the Muslims (Islam Gymkhana) to finally add the Rest in 1937 and make it the Pentangular. The Quadrangular which became the Pentangular.
A tournament with deep communal overtones was not exactly the prescription that India’s independence movement was setting store by. It was the age of Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement and something like a popular cricket tournament with religion based identification was a definite no, no. From 1938 onwards, the clock ticked to mark down time for India’s independence, the Pentangular was always in the eye of a storm for being divisive and communal. One of the most celebrated cases in point was that of P A Kanickam who was to turn out for the Hindus till they discovered that he was a Christian and summarily jettisoned him.
As far back as 1935, the sports editor of the Bombay Chronicle J C Maitra argued for a move to the zonal system replacing the religious ID from cricket. Finally in 1946, the newly formed BCCI opted to dunk the Pentangular and replace it with a geographic zonal identified set up.
The Duleep Trophy started in 1961-62. Since 2003-04, a new experiment was conducted by introducing a foreign team into the mix. The process was initiated with the entry of England A into what was essentially a zonal competition. In 2007-08, the England Lions were the foreign side, but last year there was no guest team. My sense is that one should prepare oneself for the demise of the zonal system in Indian cricket just as the famed Bombay Pentangular came a cropper for different reasons.
Commerce rules the roost in Indian cricket. The success of IPL has shown marketers and broadcasters a road paved with gold. With key personnel in the cricket board adept at the art of monetising the game, expect more such decisions every season from here on. In the process some of our cricketing institutions will be emasculated. That just leaves the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Trophy for now. So be it, let the rupee march on.
