Are the Indian cricketers frazzled wrecks? Are the Men in Blue the most over-worked cricketers in the world?
Are they the most tired lot? It’s difficult to say but the numbers tell an altogether different story.
According to a study conducted by the Board and the Indian Premier League (IPL), none of the ‘busy’ Indian cricketers are among the busiest.
In fact, players from Australia, England, the West Indies, Sri Lanka and even New Zealand have played more number of days this year than MS Dhoni & Co. What’s more, a couple of not-so-busy Indian cricketers have had more working days than the ones in reckoning.
The study shows Dwayne Smith and Kumar Sangakkara as the busiest in the world having played 117 — or will have played by the end of 2009 — days of cricket. They are followed by a couple of other Sri Lankans — Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan — with 116 and 112 days of cricket, respectively. At No.5 is Brendon McCullum with 105 days.
And Dhoni? He is the busiest among the Indians, no doubt. He was estimated to have 85 days of cricket by year-end. But having missed two ODIs, he will end up at No.16 with 83 days of work in the year. The Indian skipper’s record is like this — 25 days of Test cricket, 28 days of ODIs, 10 days of T20 Internationals, 14 IPL matches and 6 days of domestic one-dayers (Challenger Trophy and Corporate Trophy).
Gautam Gambhir is in 17th position with 82 days of cricket. Yuvraj Singh will have had about 80 working daysand he is at No.18 followed by Harbhajan at No.20 (81 days), Suresh Raina and Zaheer Khan at No.30 (76), Rohit Sharma at 34 (74), Virender Sehwag at 36 (73)and Sachin Tendulkar at 37 with 72 days. The ‘jaded’ Ishant Sharma is at 41 with an estimated 69 days of cricket.
Interestingly, the two Indian cricketers who have played more than Dhoni’s men are VVS Laxman and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik. The two, who have played in the English county league, are at No.6 and 7 with estimated year-end count of 104 and 101 days of cricket. This comes at a time when the Board is deliberating how much is too much for the Indians.
India legend Sunil Gavaskar, for one, believes it is a misconception that the Indians are the busiest lot. “Frankly, why should we be bothered what others in the world say about India? When have they had a good word to say about Indian cricket? So I would not even deign to reply to them,” the authoritative voice of the game, told DNA.
However, the load on Indian players is certain to increase once the IPL becomes a 10-team competition. Gavaskar, though, does not think so.
“The addition of two more teams will mean just four more matches for each team and that too, in the T20 format, which is less than one innings in limited-overs cricket. It’s not the playing but the travelling that can take a toll of the energies. So if a schedule where teams can play in one venue for a few days instead of travelling every other day is arranged, then it will ease the worries of the players,” Gavaskar said.
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