It’s April, it’s summer time in India, and the Indian Premier League (IPL) is into its third week.
The IPL first arrived on the scene in 2008, changing cricket forever.
The tournament was something unique that grabbed the attention of the public, but as the years rolled by and the concept that once captivated the whole nation started to lose its novelty, the general public slowly but surely started to lose interest.
The thing they initially thought to be phenomenal and fascinating actually started to occupy and eat almost two months of their precious time each year.
An IPL made up of 60 games spanning more than 50 days each year is way too long, not only for fans to follow but also for players involved.
This year, the final will be held on May 12 – just 18 days before the start of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
This raises four problems.
1. The gruelling nature of the IPL
Fourteen matches per side, constant travel from one city to another, corporate and media responsibilities, high intensity cricket… these factors surely make the IPL one of the most mentally challenging events in world sport, let alone just cricket.
Are players really going to be mentally fresh and injury-free heading into the all-important World Cup campaign?
Will they have anything left in their tanks, especially since they have hardly any time to regroup or recover following the IPL?
2. The Indian team’s exhaustion
Remember the ICC World T20 in 2009 in England and 2010 in the West Indies?
India’s failure at both these tournaments still hurts.
After a long and grueling season of IPL cricket, the Indian team that travelled to England and the West Indies looked jaded, mentally exhausted and overused.
(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Their spineless display at both the World T20s was a product of lack of initiative and poor management.
The situation is the same this year with World Cup beginning less than three weeks after the conclusion of IPL.
Has India set a trap for themselves by scheduling the IPL until mid-May?
3. The relevance of the World Cup
How much does anyone value the World Cup, or winning the World Cup?
Or are we just interested in enjoying the fruits without actually watering the plant?
The Indian cricket team has been on the road for a long, long time now, with few breaks followed by the punishing IPL.
Before they know it, they’ll be standing in front of their opponents at the World Cup in the UK.
In such a bizarre scenario, wheels can come off even the strongest teams – and it would be unfair to blame the players for this debacle.
The IPL is a massive global platform where people from across countries and continents unite, share dressing rooms, exchange knowledge, enrich each other’s game, and evolve into better players.
And the IPL deserves a great amount of credit for expanding the horizons of the game.
But at what cost do you want to continue the IPL the way it is held?
4. The IPL scheduling has gone wrong
Indian team physios will monitor the injury concerns and workloads of key players involved in the IPL, but could the IPL have been better scheduled in a World Cup year?
A clear one-month gap between the two long, exhausting, high-profile events would have given the Indian players and also the foreign players sufficient time to recover, not only physically but also mentally.
It can be taxing on players to jump into one-day mode almost immediately after having played T20 cricket for almost two months.
Some considerable time away from the game would provide players an opportunity to reflect on their performances, fine-tune their skills and fix whatever flaws appear in a more relaxed atmosphere before heading into the showpiece event.
It would also allow them to recharge their batteries and head into the global event with a fresh and rejuvenated set of wings.
This might not be practical in today’s business-driven world, but in cricketing terms, adjusting the schedule might be best for the players.
jose
Roar Rookie
the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy tournaments were after the IPL tournaments in those years, India won the 2013 version and reached the final in 2017. You cant say for sure that it will impact the performance of Indian players in the World Cup. Like Paul mentioned only time will tell whether Indian players are exhausted while playing in the WC.
Neel
Roar Guru
Well, they did shorten the IPL schedule for this season this year, didn’t they? I remember India ended up winning the Champions Trophy back in 2013 after a long IPL season. So maybe that might not be the case. Only time will tell though.
Tanmoy Kar
Guest
For BCCI, money-oriented IPL is more important than the World Cup hence they pre-pone the Tournament instead of postponing till after the World Cup.
Aiden
Guest
IPL becomes a trend every year. Recently India loses to Australia in both t20 and ODI matches at home town. Now they are showing their talent in IPL and Most of the young player also getting chances of showing their talent. We can't say that because of this IPL tournament they might lose their concentration towards the world cup matches. In Indian Premier League also they are just warming up themselves to prepare for the many matches to come.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Fielding is shared amongst the fielders. In test cricket when you have a lot of slips you might get someone being the only fieldsman on the leg side and they have to run a fair bit. Swinging the bat it would be tiring if you were facing a bowling machine in the nets delivering ball after ball in quick succession. Running between the wicket is something you can choose your effort level in from Ranatunga run as slow as possible to Dean Jones sprinting to pressure the fieldssman. The innings are shorter in T20 while they score a lot of singles and twos its about the same as one day cricket, the biggest difference is the percentage of boundaries and sixes. So if your concentrating on scoring boundaries there is less emphasis on the running between the wickets. IPL they run less twos and threes than the BBL.
Graham
Guest
Might be grueling might also be the thin edge of the wedge. I could see the 20-20 club cricket becoming one day as lengthy and prestigious as a football season one day
Paul
Roar Guru
I'm happy to be corrected Niranjan, but I get the impression Indian cricket is obviously ruled by the BCCI, but guys like Kohli in particular have a LOT of say in things like scheduling for the national players. There's no reason why India could not have arranged another ODI tournament in Sri Lanka, the UAE or even the West Indies, for April, if they thought that would benefit their WC preparations, so I'm assuming Kohli was consulted and he felt the ODI team would be right to go, even if most of the side played in the IPL. Remember too, the last regular IPL game finishes on the 5th of May and the first Indian World Cup game starts on the 5th of June. That give the majority of players a clear 31 day break, which should be plenty of time to prepare.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Hopefully the the two month IPL leaves their team with not ODI match fitness.
Niranjan Deodhar
Roar Pro
Paul, I guess you misunderstood my point about relevance of the World Cup. What I was trying to put across the board was the fact that since World Cup is so important and the most decorated price of our game, how playing T20 cricket for two months and with hardly any break between the tournaments help the players prepare themselves better for the World Cup? Instead with some time off from the game would have helped the players prepare methodically for the World Cup and for conditions they need to counter in UK. If that was the case, players would have also had more time up their sleeve to get themselves fully fit physically and freshen up mentally before leading into a marquee tournament like the World Cup.
Paul
Roar Guru
I think you're making something out of nothing Niranjan. "The gruelling nature of the IPL" - 14 games that last 3 hours is not "grueling". The guys who work hardest are your top order batsmen and bowlers who have to deliver 24 balls and field for the other 16 overs. Sure it's intense but it's also not for long and there is plenty of time to recover between games. If this was as grueling as you suggest, why are so many guys playing IPL who will be playing for their respective countries in June? I haven't heard a peep out of Cricket Australia and they're the first to stop guys if they think it will hurt our chances of winning tournaments or series down the track. "Indian team's exhaustion and IPL scheduling gone wrong" - 3 weeks should be plenty of time for an international side to get over this tournament. Again, CA doesn't see this as an issue for it's players, nor do the other cricketing administrations around the world, so why would that be the case for India alone? "The relevance of the World Cup". This is the longest running cricket tournament that tests all top tier cricketing nations against each other. I have no idea how you can question it's relevance? I'm sure if you polled the players, ALL would consider it to be highly relevant and winning the trophy a significant career highlight. Time will tell whether you're right or not, but if India does NOT win the World Cup, it won't be because so many guys played IPL.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
That's an interesting take on it and I think you may have a very good point. With the bowlers I think it's definitely less taxing. They only bowl 4 overs and quite often it's spread over several spells. On top of that the fast bowlers generally bowl a lot of slower balls so they're not even bowling flat out for the few overs they do bowl. .. Some people might argue that the fielding is a lot more intense and explosive in T20 but I'm not so sure that's true either these days. You see guys throwing themselves around in the field in all formats these days, even in test cricket. .. That leaves the batting. I don't think there's much doubt that the batting is more explosive in T20. They swing hard at almost every ball and take more risks running between the wickets but it begs the question: Is it harder to go flat out for a short time than to go slightly less hard for a much longer time. I know from my own experience that it was much easier to sprint 100m then to almost sprint 400m. Maybe that was just me though. Others might feel differently about that.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
T20 cricket is not taxing. What other format do old players keep playing on as much as T20. I think there is a reverse issue, fitness levels can slip because players dont bat as long and run as much between the wickets and the bowlers dont bowl too long spells. The question can the Indian squad do the additional fitness training they will need at the same time as the IPL.