It’s difficult to know how good some of the Ranji players are

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Even as the West Indies chased down a stiff target of 250 with 9 deliveries to spare and levelled the T20 series in Ranchi, the news came that in another part of the world at the qualifiers for the T20 World Cup, Mongolia were dismissed for 13 runs in response to Thailand's score of 192/2. That, of course, is not the lowest score in this format. That dubious record belongs to Ivory coast who were bowled out for just 7 runs against Nigeria. Mongolia in 2024 had got only 10 runs against Singapore in another T20 international. Yes, these games are called internationals since one country's team is playing against another country's team. The question is not whether they should be called internationals but whether there should be some sort of minimum standard before stats from these mismatched games are considered for records.

When a team is dismissed for such paltry scores, the bowler's stats can only be bettered when the emerging ICC Associate member countries play against each other. To equate it with the stats when full member country teams play against each other is simply not fair. The glaring difference in standards means that records will belong to players who most of the cricketing world has never heard of before and perhaps likely to never hear of again.

In the football leagues there are divisions where there's a promotion and relegation at the end of a season. So whatever records are set they are mentioned as being in the Divisions, in which they have been achieved in. Maybe something similar should be thought of where depending on the division in which countries are playing the differentiation is clear to everybody. So even while full member countries and those Associate member countries, who qualify for the ICC World cup, can be called internationals when they play against each other, maybe for the others it can be called Division A international or Division B international. This way even the casual follower of the game knows what is happening.

Yuvraj Singh held the record for scoring the fastest T20 half-century when he got it in 12 deliveries against England in the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup. That record was erased when Nepal's Dipendra Singh Airee got to his half-century in just 9 balls against guess who ? Yes, Mongolia. Make no mistake, Nepal is making rapid strides as we saw in the T20 World Cup in India earlier in the year when they almost beat England. So, it's no surprise when its batters and bowlers pulverise the other Associate country teams. But should that count for a record ?

Even in the Ranji Trophy, in the Plate Division there are records being broken and new marks set at both batting and bowling. When the Lodha panel recommended that all states and Union Territories should be included in the Ranji Trophy, it just meant that the standard got lowered. Most of the new state teams did not even have proper infrastructure and so hired players from other states who couldn't find a place in their home state teams. These players were good but unable to break through into their home state teams and so went to the state teams in the Plate Division. When most, if not all, played against teams from the Elite division, they were found wanting and it just exposed the yawning gap in the standard between the divisions. Yet the records set are still called records because they are playing in the Ranji Trophy.

The Lodha panel made some excellent recommendations about the administration part of BCCI but the playing part should then have been left to the BCCI council to decide. The BCCI Committee, before the Lodha panel came about, had promoted Chhattisgarh to the Ranji Trophy after its junior teams did well at the age-group levels. This way the standard did not get diluted, though there were still teams who were just so much better than some other teams.

The standard in the Elite division has levelled to a great extent as can be seen by teams who were not very competitive earlier, now going on to win the Ranji Trophy. That's most encouraging though with the India international players hardly playing in the domestic competitions, it's difficult to know how good some of the individual players are. This is noticeable when some of the leading run makers and wicket takers in the Ranji Trophy are picked to play for India. They struggle to find their feet and some fade away quickly, while some still stay on the fringes but are not quite able to crack it.

There really is no easy solution and the ‘A' team matches certainly help in telling who is more likely to succeed internationally and who will remain a top Ranji performer. There's a case for more A team matches but not when the domestic competitions especially the Ranji Trophy is on. For then it won't be a surprise with weakened competition, a batter may reach 2000 runs and a bowler 100 wickets in a Ranji season.

Professional Management Group