Duleep Trophy not relevant anymore: Ajit Agarkar

Former India fast bowler Ajit Agarkar expressed concerns with the relevance of Duleep Trophy, a domestic first-class tournament played for more than five decades in the country. BCCI had earlier scrapped the tournament for this year but with the help of Sourav Ganguly and the CoA, the first-class event is back on the calendar for the forthcoming domestic season.

Duleep Trophy used to be a zonal tournament but from last season, BCCI made it a 3-team contest which is played with the pink-ball. Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, and Abhinav Mukund are the respective captains for the three squads comprising of 45 players announced. The tournament will be the season opener for the domestic season in India and is scheduled to be held between September 7 to 29 in Kanpur and Lucknow. Star cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who was recently ignored for the limited overs series in Sri Lanka fails to find a spot in any of the three teams.

Duleep Trophy more of a pink-ball experiment

Agarkar, who has himself played in a few Duleep Trophy games from West Zone in his heydays, said that the BCCI has tried different formats for the Duleep Trophy in the recent past but there is no relevance of it as it is not a zonal tournament anymore. “Not anymore for me,” said Agarkar when asked about the relevance of the tournament. “I think, for a few years now, they (BCCI) have been trying different formats in the Duleep Trophy; the only thing I like about it is the pink-ball,” remarked Agarkar while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.

“Duleep Trophy was a very important tournament a few years back when the relevance was a bit different but now you have so much cricket going on, the Ranji season is so much longer, you have so many games to see the players and their performances. I can understand the whole history behind it, the trophy is named after Duleep Singh Ji and how do you scrap it but if it is not relevant to your cricket, why would you carry on.”

Agarkar feels the players will need time to get going

Agarkar also remarked that because Duleep Trophy is the season opener, many of the top cricketers will be a little rusty and might take time to reach their peak which defeats the purpose of the competition. “You got to question if they (players) are playing at their peak, to have that kind of quality, there are still some top players from India playing that but are they at their peak levels of performance and fitness this early in the season, that’s another question.”

There have been concerns over the longevity of the pink-ball and its effectiveness in India. Agarkar was certain that because of the dew around, the ball will become soft and soggy. “The pink-ball is going to be difficult in India in any case, the conditions that are there, there is so much dew during November, December when the first-class season is played or Jan and from all accounts, I haven’t played with the pink-ball, it does seem to soften anyway and if it gets wet it will just be soggy and it won’t have the same effect. In India it is going to be very difficult with the kind of conditions we have, we don’t have long days during winters so you will have to play more under lights” the owner of 288 ODI wickets said.

With the rise in the number of Day-night Tests, India needs to start playing with the pink-ball to get a fair amount of practice before they eventually play their first game 5-day game under lights. Agarkar opined that if they manage to customize the pink-ball in order to use it in India, it is a “real option to have” in the domestic season.