India is playing great in this World Cup. Photo: AFP The Indian cricket team confirmed the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup from the top of the first round by winning 8 out of 8 matches. Cricket superpowers like Australia, South Africa, England, New Zealand could not compete with India. Batting, bowling, fielding—they are impeccable in all three categories.
Many people are seeing the contribution of Indian Premier League (IPL) in such a great performance of India in this World Cup. This cash-rich franchise league has been running for about two months in India. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah have a good idea about the conditions of the fields as they play in different stadiums in India. Apart from Marma’s cut-cut batting, bowling techniques can also be learned well. Where Rohit scored a 63-ball century against Afghanistan in this World Cup. Jadeja is also batting late. He is also contributing in bowling and fielding. Bumrah, Shamira with excellent bowling stopping the opponent’s runs by taking wickets in the opening and death overs.
Due to playing in IPL for many years, Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja are in great rhythm now, it should be understood by seeing their performance. But according to Sourav Ganguly, the performance of players cannot be judged by one IPL alone. The former president of the Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) believes that the ability of cricketers can be understood only by playing four-day, five-day cricket. Many star cricketers have emerged from the nearly 100 years of first class cricket in India. Shreyas Iyer scored 1321 runs in 2015-16 Ranji that season. Iyer was not in rhythm at the start of this tournament but has been running consistently towards the end. In Pakistan’s ‘A Sports’ Sourav said, ‘IPL is not the only reason India is successful in international cricket. The quality of players is not judged only by IPL. Playing four-day, five-day cricket shows the performance of the players. The more T20s you play, the more mediocre you become. I always say that you can earn a lot of money by playing T20. But to become a player, you have to play four-five days of cricket.’
Until the 2020-21 season, the cricketers in the playing XI in the Ranji Trophy earned 35 thousand Indian rupees (46 thousand in Bangladeshi currency) per day. And the cricketers on the reserve bench earned 17,500 Indian rupees (23,000 Bangladeshi rupees) per day. After that, the cricketers in the XI from the 2021-22 season are getting Rs 60,000 (Tk 79,000) per day. And the cricketers outside the XI are earning 30 thousand rupees (39 thousand 500 taka) per day. Sourav thinks that the cricketers are interested in first class cricket because of such salary increase. The former Indian captain said, ‘Salaries in first-class cricket have increased incredibly. Cricketers are busy with first class cricket from September to March. After that he played IPL for two months. The team is playing so well because of this system.’
