Indian cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid suggested that the domestic cricket scheduling should go through an ‘all-round review’ after players like Shardul Thakur and R Sai Kishore expressed their concerns. Shardul said that players need more breaks between the matches in order to avoid injury and his sentiments were echoed by Sai Kishore. Following India’s win over England in the fifth Test match in Dharamsala, Dravid was asked about the concerns and he said that the BCCI should consult the players who are “going through the grind and putting their bodies on the line.”
“I’ve heard the same as well. I saw some of the comments Shardul, I think, made. And in fact some of the boys who’ve come into the team as well, also comment about how tough the domestic schedule is, especially in a country like India with the amount of travel involved. So yeah, we need to hear the players. That’s a very important thing in a lot of these things,” Dravid said.
“You need to hear your players, because they are the ones going through the grind and putting their bodies on the line, and if there are enough voices saying that, then yeah, I think there’s some need to look at it, and see how we can manage our schedules.”
Dravid also urged the BCCI to look into the scheduling of other competitions like Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy to manage the pressure on the cricketers.
“It’s a long season already in India. It’s tough,” Dravid said. “The Ranji Trophy is a long season, and if you add a Duleep and a Deodhar on top of that…Last year, if I’m not mistaken, the Duleep started in June, it was just a month after the IPL, and your problem in this situation is your best players, the guys who are pushing for selection for India, are the ones that end up playing the most cricket. Because they keep getting selected at the next level, more and more, and their teams are the ones probably who are playing the semi-finals and the finals, or that kind of situation. They are the ones who end up playing a lot of cricket, and you also want them to be playing for India, and India A tours, and so it can get quite tough on a lot of those boys, and maybe we need to hear them out.”
“Maybe we need to re-look and see whether some of the tournaments that we are conducting are necessary in this day and age or if they are not necessary. There needs to be an all-round review [involving] coaches and players, especially the guys who are part of the domestic circuit,” he added.
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