I grew up believing a five-day Test was not too long; it was precisely long enough for character to stop pretending. A batter could survive an hour through luck, a session through technique and perhaps a day through stubbornness. By the fourth afternoon, however, the match had usually discovered who could think while tired. That is the quality India risks losing when its cricket economy rewards immediate impact and treats red-ball preparation as an administrative chore.
This is not an anti-IPL sermon. The IPL has improved Indian fielding, expanded the professional pool and given players financial security that previous generations could barely imagine. My complaint is that the BCCI seems to assume white-ball abundance will automatically replenish Test cricket. It will not. Red-ball skills require repeated exposure to conditions in which the ball ages, bodies tire and weaknesses are attacked for hours.
The BCCI’s domestic fixtures show the volume of cricket under its control, while the board’s international schedule reveals how little empty space remains around bilateral series and tournaments. The problem is not that India plays too little cricket. It is that the calendar gives every format an appointment while giving players too little time to develop between appointments.
A first-class system needs more than famous alumni
The Ranji Trophy remains one of sport’s great logistical undertakings. Teams travel across a huge country, playing on surfaces and in climates that demand adaptation. Yet we invoke its historic prestige more often than we examine its present incentives. A tournament cannot remain healthy merely because Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and countless others once passed through it.
Selection must visibly reward sustained domestic performance. When a player can leapfrog first-class specialists after a short burst in franchise cricket, the message travels through every dressing room. Young batters sensibly train for the opportunity most likely to change their lives. That is not greed; it is adaptation to the signals administrators send.
The BCCI has increased domestic match fees and encouraged centrally contracted players to appear for their states when available. Both moves are useful. They should become part of a more explicit red-ball compact: substantial retainers for leading first-class professionals, insurance for injuries suffered in domestic competition, high-quality medical support and meaningful bonuses for teams producing India players.
I would also publish pitch assessments in full. If a match finishes in barely two days because the surface turns from the first hour or seamers cannot stand upright without taking a wicket, the venue should have to explain the preparation. Difficult pitches are not bad pitches. A good Indian surface may spin sharply later and still reward first-innings technique. A lottery teaches nobody.
Preparation cannot be replaced by optional nets
Before an important Test series, India should play proper first-class warm-up matches whenever logistics permit. The modern argument says touring teams dislike these games because hosts provide weak opposition or unrepresentative pitches. That is a reason to improve them, not abolish them. Batting for two days against an unfamiliar attack is categorically different from a centre-wicket simulation controlled by the touring side.
India’s own players need blocks of red-ball cricket before major home and away assignments. A fast bowler arriving from a T20 competition must adjust length, workload and recovery. A batter must relearn the value of leaving. A spinner must construct dismissals without a boundary rider protecting every experiment. These adjustments do not occur because a coach sends a presentation.
Workload management has also become a phrase elastic enough to justify almost anything. I want fast bowlers protected, but protection should be based on transparent medical planning rather than format hierarchy. Too often a player is rested from a Test or first-class match only to appear in a commercially important competition. The body apparently understands broadcast rights.
No player should be forced through injury for my nostalgia. But the board should define priorities publicly. If the World Test Championship matters, say which series and preparation windows are protected. If it does not, stop marketing every victory as proof of national depth.
The batting problem begins before the collapse
When India’s batting fails against movement or quality spin, analysis tends to identify one technical flaw per player. The larger issue is ecological. Players encounter fewer long spells in which bowlers can revise plans repeatedly. Limited-overs cricket teaches valuable improvisation, but it also permits an escape through scoring pressure. In Tests the bowler can live outside off stump until impatience becomes a collaborator.
Domestic cricket should therefore reward time as well as runs. Scorecards already record balls faced, but selection discussion often reduces an innings to the total. A 70 made over four hours on a difficult morning may show more Test readiness than a rapid hundred on a flat surface. Selectors understand this, yet public communication rarely explains it.
Wicketkeepers and all-rounders face similar distortions. A keeper’s franchise value may depend on late-order hitting, while Test selection demands clean work after 120 overs and the judgment to stand up to uneven bounce. A seam-bowling all-rounder must sustain spells, not merely deliver two clever overs. The pipeline needs format-specific assessment.
India has enough talent to solve these problems, which is why failure would be inexcusable. Smaller boards lose players to economic gravity. The BCCI is the gravity. It can pay domestic professionals properly, schedule preparation and protect Test windows without begging anyone else for permission.
Fans also have responsibilities
I cannot blame administrators alone while supporters demand instant selection after every spectacular IPL innings. We have adopted the language of markets: a player trends, his “stock rises,” and a national cap becomes the logical next product launch. Test selection should occasionally be boring. It should reward evidence accumulated beyond the duration of a viral clip.
Broadcasters should invest in domestic storytelling. The Ranji Trophy does not need manufactured shouting, but viewers need context: which batter has rebuilt his technique, which bowler has succeeded across surfaces, which state has improved its academy. Fans cannot value people they are never introduced to.
Streaming access has improved, yet coverage quality remains uneven. Every elite domestic match should have reliable video, functional score data and archives that selectors, coaches and supporters can use. The richest board in cricket should not make following its premier first-class competition feel like amateur detective work.
The choice is institutional, not romantic
Test cricket will not disappear tomorrow. That is precisely why neglect is easy. Decline occurs as a series of rational small choices: one missing warm-up, one compressed season, one star excused from domestic duty, one young player advised to prioritise a franchise trial. Eventually the national side discovers that talent is not the same thing as preparation.
I do not want the BCCI to preserve Tests as a museum exhibit for men of my generation. I want it to treat them as an elite contemporary competition requiring specialised investment. That means money, scheduling, pitch science, medical planning and selection credibility.
The IPL is Indian cricket’s extraordinary commercial achievement. It should finance a red-ball system so strong that no other country can match it. Instead, we occasionally use IPL success as evidence that every part of the ecosystem must be healthy. A tree can carry glittering fruit while its roots dry quietly.
I remain convinced that Indian players want to excel in Tests. The board’s job is to ensure that wanting is supported by a viable path. Give them serious first-class cricket, visible rewards and time to prepare. Otherwise, when the next collapse arrives, we should spare ourselves the surprise. Technique neglected in the calendar cannot be summoned by patriotism on the morning of a Test.
