‘Saw the comment Shardul Thakur made…’: Dravid outlines major Ranji Trophy fault after BCCI’s domestic-cricket diktat

India head coach Rahul Dravid called for an “all-round review” of the Ranji Trophy season after Mumbai bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur called out on the need for longer breaks for the domestic players through the course of the tournament.

Dravid’s remark came days after BCCI made it mandatory for centrally-contracted players to prioritise domestic cricket during their time away from national duty to remain in fray for Team India selection and retain their annual contract.

Following the semifinal win against Tamil Nadu in Mumbai where Thakur was named the Player of the Match for his all-round brilliance, which included a maiden First-Class ton, the India cricketer complained about how it has been “extremely tough on domestic players to play 10 games in a row with just a three-day gap” and that the board needs to “re-look at it and give longer breaks”.

Thakur wasn’t the only one as Tamil Nadu skipper Sai Kishore, who had picked up an impressive fifer in that match, pointed out that lesser gaps between matches in a Ranji Trophy season deprived adequate rest and pre-game preparation for bowlers.

Speaking after the 4-1 series win against England on Saturday in Dharamsala, Dravid supported Thakur and Kishore’s statement saying that the BCCI needs to look into the matter and take care of the players “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.”

The India batting legend also urged to the board to reexamine the importance of some of the domestic tournaments in a bid to lessen the burden on players.

“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.”