The BCCI secretary Jay Shah slammed “unfair and unwarranted” allegations that the Board prioritized the cash-rich event above national championships like the Ranji Trophy. The operations of organizing 60 IPL matches and 2000+ domestic games will be totally different. let’s look at Jay Shah About Comparing IPL Games With Domestic Games.
Jay Shah About Comparing IPL Games With Domestic Games
The COVID-19 outbreak and the operational inefficiencies of providing a bio-secure atmosphere for thousands of players and admin staff prevented the blue-riband Ranji Trophy and junior cricket from being played last year. Whereas the players missed out on large sums of money, the BCCI was chastised for focusing entirely on the prestigious league.
“I feel the criticism is unwarranted and unfair. In 2020 as well, in the middle of the pandemic, we conducted Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, Vijay Hazare tournament and Senior Women’s One-day tournament taking all precautions,” says Shah, who was in Muscat and Dubai, to oversee T20 World Cup and IPL preparations.
Not easy to conduct IPL full season, as many states are with COVID caseloads: Jay Shah
According to Shah, the number of matches and logistics necessary for two events are dissimilar.”It won’t be a fair assessment if IPL is compared with other Indian domestic tournaments. The IPL has a franchise model and a platform for the world’s best cricketers, coaches, support staff to come and showcase their skills”.
“The Indian domestic season has over 2000 games, whereas the IPL has 60 matches. With a cricketing set-up as big and as diverse as India’s, it is not easy to conduct a full season when so many states are grappling with COVID caseloads,” Shah explained.
The IPL has traditionally been a 7-week event, but a full domestic season comprising men’s, women’s, and age-group cricket takes about six months to complete, with 38 teams competing.
“You also have to factor in the time taken to have an entire domestic season and the travel that is included. They are putting their lives at risk, which should never be the case. It is not ideal to have age-group tournaments in such an environment and put careers of young cricketers at risk,” Shah focused on not having any U-19 or U-16 tournaments for last year.
“However, with the situation improving, we have announced a full season comprising 2127 domestic games across age groups for both men and women,” he said.
The BCCI just released the schedule for the whole domestic season, which begins in September this year and concludes in April the following year.
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