BCCI unlikely to move against senior players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), though disturbed by the back-to-back setbacks in England and Australia, will refrain from taking a call on the careers of under-performing senior players.

"Whether the seniors should retire or be dropped is something to be decided by the selectors or the players themselves. The board can’t interfere in this matter,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale.

Asked if the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the reason for India not finding youngsters good enough for Test cricket, he said everything can’t be blamed on the IPL. “It has its positives and negatives.”

Admitting that India’s overseas showing has been horrendous of late, he said every team going through a transitional phase has endured such setbacks, including the mighty Australia and England.

“It’s impossible to produce cricketers of the calibre of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. So, these things will happen,” he said, implying that Indians fans should prepare themselves for more agony.

He said some plans to resurrect the plunging fortunes of Indian cricket were on the anvil.

“First and foremost, we are focussing on restructuring domestic cricket  - infrastructure, playing conditions and especially wickets. You can’t expect youngsters who have grown up on Indian wickets to perform on bouncy and seaming wickets all at once. It’s important to prepare good wickets, and the knockouts in the Ranji Trophy this year were played on difficult wickets,” said Jagdale.

“We are waiting for Sourav Ganguly, chairman of the BCCI’s technical committee. We will sit down with him and discuss how to refurbish our domestic cricket,” he said.

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