New Delhi: When India began its Cricket World Cup campaign in Southampton Wednesday, much of the pre-match discussion centred around one scheduling oddity — while the Indians were playing their first match, the South Africans were playing their third and on the verge of elimination.
The scenario, it turns out, unfolded due to a special request from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which also involved the Indian Premier League and the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee.
The IPL schedule released by the BCCI on 19 March stated that the group stages of the tournament would end on 5 May. According to the Hindustan Times, the Board clarified that it did not release the complete IPL schedule then due to the Lok Sabha elections. It made no mention of the World Cup.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), meanwhile, went ahead and released the World Cup schedule on 26 April, which showed that the first game was to be played on 30 May.
The IPL eventually ended only on 12 May.
The BCCI had then asked the ICC to change the schedule. Although the BCCI did not officially confirm it, the Board appears to have used one of the Lodha committee’s recommendations to persuade the ICC to postpone India’s first game to 5 June.
The recommendation, made in October 2016, was that there should be a mandatory gap of at least 15 days between the IPL and the rest of the cricket calendar. The BCCI, in a press release shortly after a meeting in which it deliberated upon the recommendations, had said that the “effort to ensure a 15-day gap between the national calendar and the IPL will be made”.
Also read: Dhoni’s gloves with Indian Army’s Special Forces’ ‘Balidan’ patch bowl over social media
Rationale behind recommendation
The rationale behind this mandatory recommendation, according to a Times of India report, was that the Lodha Committee felt the cricketers deserved a prolonged break after the tournament.
“A testing and cramped cricketing year takes a substantial toll on a professional cricketer’s body and longevity, and it’s the responsibility of the BCCI to take remedial measures immediately,” reads Page 42 in Volume 1 of the newly proposed BCCI Constitution under the header ‘IPL’.
The Indian team left for England on 22 May and played two warm-up matches — against New Zealand on 25 May and Bangladesh on 28 May.
While its late entry into the World Cup has got tongues wagging, the schedule is far from being completely favourable to India. In the latter stages of the tournament, the Indian side has fewer rest days.
India plays favourites England on 30 June and then faces Bangladesh on 2 July. It is the only team with this one-day break while all the other teams have a minimum two-day break before their next game.
World cup ki dates ipl or election dono se bahut pahle aa gayi thi boss, Theprint walo politics pe hi raho cricket me apni fantasy na pelo!!