CHENNAI: Over the last three weeks or so, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made some noises about prioritising domestic red-ball cricket. They have also, seemingly, demoted a couple of players as they didn't pay heed to their words (the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are without central contracts as things stand).
On Friday, they continued to travel down this road as they further incentivised players who feature in the longest format of the game. Called the 'Test Cricket Incentive Scheme', a cricketer's fee could go up as high as 300% per Test if they feature in over 75% of the games played in that season.
"This scheme," the BCCI said in a statement, "is not only designed to encourage players to engage in the purest format of the sport but also addresses the evolving dynamics of the cricketing landscape, ensuring parity with match fees in other formats and league cricket. This initiative aligns with our vision of promoting Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport."
On the face of it, this is a good scheme. Other cricketing boards have seen players shunning Tests for white-ball tournaments. But one couldn't help but wonder if the BCCI would prioritise next year's World Test Championship final (India are the current leaders) as well as the five-Test England series that will likely begin after the culmination of the one-off final.
What's the connection between the BCCI and a match where the identity of both teams are yet to be known? As always, context is king.
Last year's IPL finished on May 29. Three cricketers who featured in that final (Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane) reached the UK a few days later. Less than a week after arriving in London, they faced up to Australia. You could probably argue that wasn't ideal (some of the Australians had already been in England by then while others, like India, had travelled to England just prior to the beginning of the final).
By the end of Day Three, India were already down. Just before the start of Day Three, Shardul Thakur had a chat with Ricky Ponting. It revealed a lot about where Thakur's body was. "I had a chat with Shardul and he said he's started to feel the pinch," Ponting had told the media just before tea on the third day. "Their preparation probably wasn't ideal coming into a one-off Test with all their players being at the IPL. Few of the Australian boys were there. Few of the Australian boys hadn't done anything for three months either... what was the best preparation coming into a game like this? Was it playing pretty high-quality competitive cricket in the IPL or was it better off being at home, resting up and doing a bit of non-competitive training?"
Thakur, like some of the others, was feeling the pinch because he had bowled 23 overs across 1.5 days. At the IPL, he had bowled 21 across two months. For the record, none of Australia's frontline bowlers featured at the IPL (while Pat Cummins had opted out citing a heavy workload, Mitchell Starc didn't register. Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland were also fresh).
Skipper Rohit Sharma, when he was speaking to the media after the match, was honest enough to admit they would have liked 20-25 days to prepare for the final. "Ideally, we would want to have time in hand to prepare and give enough rest to the bowlers," he had said.
"Sometimes it can be tough because playing T20 cricket, you completely bowl different lengths, different lines, lot of change-ups. And then Test cricket obviously requires a lot of discipline, hitting that area consistently and challenging the batsmen — but again you know (Mohammed) Shami, (Mohammed) Siraj, Umesh (Yadav), they all are experienced, they obviously know how to prepare themselves and get ready for a game like this. But in an ideal scenario, yes, I would prefer it if we have 20-25 days to prepare for a game like this."
The BCCI have been warned. But that's just half the job. The calendar is unforgiving, as always. After India return from Australia, there's the prospect of travelling to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy in February-March (as it stands). You then have the IPL. And you are already cutting into the 20-25 days the captain had wanted as lead time.
So, will the BCCI give the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal (zero Tests there) and Shubman Gill (three Tests at an average of 14.6) an option to skip part of the IPL to get used to the conditions. Will Sharma be empowered enough to request the BCCI to send the bowlers before the league finishes?
Answers to these questions may come by this time next year.