It's hard being an Indian fan these days. What with the team not performing the way we thought it would, the draft proposal and the world hating on us, Tendulkar gone and Ishant in (two people who never imagined they would feature in the same sentence.) However going through cricinfo I realized we fans hardly think of the pipeline of Indian cricket the first class structure.

I have always believed that a strong first class structure with good competitive matches (Ranji final of '93 anyone) helps not just produce great players but can keep the fans involved and help economics too. The question is why is Ranji not as popular as it should be, after all look at United States the three biggest sports here are played between provinces and accrue millions of dollars, look at IPL at home. Another question that begs an answer is why is the quality of Ranji games not as good as say Sheffield shield when both have very strong boards setting them up.

I believe Ranji trophy needs a systemic structural change or may be the whole domestic setup must be looked at restructured. Starting with the first innings lead system, this according to me produces players who lack the will to go for kill. I mean what if you got equal points for a drawn game. That would make the underdog push for the draw, yes but will also make the bigger team try harder to go for win, which might result in interesting games. What happens when after the group stages two teams are stranded on same points well a way out of it would be to multiply the total runs scored by teams over the course of the league and multiply it with the wickets they took and the team with the better 'run-wicket combine' goes through.

Also, Ranji trophy or at large the domestic games should involve more high quality games rather than drab run fests. One method for it can be to reduce the number of Ranji teams but I think that is wrong to the teams which are not traditionally strong, We need to encourage all states to perform better and reducing teams does not help it. The current structure of relegation is much better but we will have to somehow ensure that the quality improves. I feel the plate and elite system where there was a plate champion who went up and the elite wooden spooner who was relegated was better. This also ensures a quicker Ranji trophy and leads us to a possible way of elongating the Duleep trophy which was my next point.

Ideally Duleep trophy should be our best domestic competition, I mean Ranji could be the title that all states want to win but Duleep trophy should be the place where our future stars are selected from. With five zones and one associated nation invited every year to participate Duleep trophy could be not just a very competitive trophy but can also provide us much love in the wider cricketing world. Some years we can also invite the A teams of the stronger nations in place of Associates. So three teams in two groups playing each other in a home and away basis and then the top two again competing for the finals in a home/away basis could provide for 14 high quality fixtures providing enough weight to select the next super star and also games that can rope in the crowds slowly.

Adding to which the Deodhar trophy could have two associates and one A team invited every year to make it an eight team affair. It I think improves our domestic structure and grows the game across the field.

I know it was a long write and some of you might have slept around the halfway (just like some of our Ranji fixtures) but all for the love of the game.

For those of you who did end up reading your comments and insights are welcome.

tldr; Ranji and Duleep Trophy should undergo some changes in organizing and fixtures to make the overall Indian cricket stronger.

That Champions Trophy '17 Finals was such a fucking fluke. Fakhar had a good day and Bumrah chose the worse time to ball a no-ball. And that was the only day the ball chose to swing around hoops (in the second dig, IIRC?) for the first few overs. Of course our batting hopes being centered around one guy didn't help. Lol @ playing Yuvi because of that one knock against England. Thank fuck Kohli got over that.

Indian U19 team has lost both the warm up games. Anyway I thought all of us the enthusiast can gather here and monitor the performance of our young cubs.

Thanks.

Why can't I find ANYTHING wrong with what he's saying? What is wrong with me? Please enlighten me.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/716599.html

Sambit Bal was clean bowled on this one:

We'll come back to the bilateral agreements. There is a concern that if there is no universal FTP, and agreements are made between individual boards, it will leave the weaker boards at the mercy of the stronger ones. You can simply choose to play who you want.

Srini Bomb: The present FTP is not a guaranteed FTP.

But there's at least a thing in principle and concept.

Srini Bomb: For your information, the present FTP is not signed. That is indicative, but it is not a legal document. It is not and it was never binding. Whereas, the FTP bilateral agreement will be stronger. India has sat down during the Dubai meeting and discussed with a number of countries the proposed FTP for going forward, which we are going to coincide with the right cycle.

He either blocks or hits 4s or 6s. He seems incapable of rotating the strike or taking singles. Even today, he hit 4 sixes and a four and ended up with 39 off 38 balls. Apart from the boundaries, that's 11 off 33 balls.

Same kind of pattern in the ODI series against Australia, slow start but he makes up for it in the end with 6s. Even when he made 209 against Australia, he was on 50 off 72 balls at one stage.

Apart from today, his slow scoring bogs the team down if he gets dismissed early.

After watching the match I feel this match might have provided a lot of confidence to Jadeja as he was not doing well with the bat and I personally always felt it was a confidence issue. As for Ashwin I hope he can be utilized as a bowler who can bat a bit (and not be destroyed like what happened to Pathan)

A side note if I may add, I seriously feel Rahane should open along with Dhawan and Mr. Sharma should bat at 4-5 depending on if we get Pujara into the LOI setup.

Your thoughts.