The Mercenary Era

2007 WC was a disaster for India. Lost the first level matches - even to Bangladesh - and got kicked out right there just after three games. An aging team, captained by a player who may not fit the tempo of that time, not well fitted for modern terms of the game. Not many replacements were found in India either. Yeah, no matches to what the little island below had to offer.

At the same time, T20 cricket was knocking every door. It was becoming popular every day. 

And needless to say that the Indian crowd was highly unsatisfied. They expected to see better cricket. They were thirsty but nothing suited for consumption other than the poison of hatred towards the players. Nothing else was available there (we know they don't cheer the runner's up SL for sure).

It was under these circumstances that some bunch of people got together in discussion. The bureaucratic sloth bears in BCCI may never see the light for years and they thought that they should take the matters in hand. India was becoming rich so it was surely a lucrative operation worth trying. Thirst was there but lacked any supply for the demand. It was a business opportunity.

It is unclear whose idea it was. But gotta be a damn good one. But it is very likely to have got shaped pretty much in the mind of then chairman of National Cricket Academy and the biggest cricket veteran sitting there.

You must have guessed it. Play a T20 cup. Play franchises. Play foreign players. Play for money, pay good money and earn good money. In return wake up Indian cricket and make it really good for them.

It was not IPL. It was ICL, that never to be league of Zee TV. The think tank thought BCCI will be happy for their commitment for the nation at the harshest moments of history and would support their plan. What came out was threatening bans and almost certainly theft of intellectual property.

I hate mercenary cricket and I wish that meeting never took place. for it changed the world cricket, partially caused the ruin of SL cricket and really impacted all the other nations in bad ways (scheduling issues, loyalty issues, players leaving national cricket, early retirements, etc etc). But I have to admit that it is singly the biggest reason for the gap between Rahul Dravid's India and Virat Kohli's India in 13 years.

ICL died in the hands of BCCI but the format was replicated in not only IPL but zillion other cricket nations all over the solar system and milky way for that matter, well, only those have functional cricket administration. Not the few dead ones.

Today, that veteran man who pretty much certainly was behind this brilliant idea is somewhere in an Indian hospital after suffering from a heart attack. This is not the only story you can write about Kapil Dev but pretty rare this would be remembered today.

Get well soon big boy.

Kusal Perera - Should the ESPNcricinfo's best test batsman of 2019 play any more test cricket?

As he pocketed the ESPNcricinfo award for best test innings of 2019 beating Ben stokes, Kusal Perera still has not even secured his place in the test side.

He was dismissed after Pakistani tour where he never played any role but being a mere traveler, and De Mel cited several facts for his exclusion

- Kusal was nursing a minor injury

- Kusal needs to regain form

- Kusal does not occupy the crease although he can deliver a random 150

- Kusal is not in playing XI so it will be a pure waste of time for him

- Kusal should focus as the main wicket-keeper and opener of shorter form as 2020 is a WC year.

The last one combined with the first gives a fair reasoning itself. Knowing his injury history, Zimbabwe - a noticeably low key and non-accounted tour - is surely not worth risking his chances for the WC. And that may be further backed by his absence from domestic games since then, perhaps due to injury.

But the question is whether he has at least reserved the squad selection for upcoming England tests.

Here comes the need to regain form and the comment that he does not occupy the crease. His miraculous Durban test produced 51 and 153. But that is followed by 20, 1, 23, 0, 0 where the last double ducks have been in the test against NZL that SL badly wanted a middle-order batsman to save it. Looking into past before the Durban test you need to pass 10 innings to see a half-century. Among them was a match-winning 23 unbeaten in WI, but all the other innings were very short, mostly out for rash shots.



Kusal was playing no 5 in SA as Chandimal was out dropped and Angelo was injured. Both these players have come back. Chandimal not only occupies Kusal's no 5 position but also fills the extra wicket-keeper role. You cannot say that he has done amazingly well, but it is safe to say that his half-century in Pakistan and match-saving stay in Harare should at least be enough to retain the position against England.

Adding to the complexity, Roshen Silva is back playing FC cricket. Although he has done nothing exceptional yet, his impressive batting average and match-saving skills will be at high demand against England in home tests, where Roshen shows more skill to play.

If anyone else is needed to replace Lahiru Thirimanna, the little kid who hasn't stopped performing - Pathum Nissanka - has scored another century to his long list of impressive knocks that decorate his ultra-impressive FC average of 65. He is a wicket-keeper too and should have been selected ahead of Oshadha, if not for some error in De Mel maths.

Where is Kusal Perera gonna fit? And why should he play tests? Because Harsha Bhogle laughed at SL, or because Kusal really won the ESPNcricinfo award?

Only he can fix this. He has to be better than someone in the test team. At the age of 29, he will have to show it pretty quickly.