Restrictive trade practice
UMPIRE'S POST
| About five years ago, Ambati Rayudu was India's next great batting hope. He was exceptional in Indian colts' clean sweep of a one-day series in England in 2002 as well as in his first Ranji season the following year. |
| He was captain of the Under-19 team that reached the semis of the World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004. A swift decline followed and today, at the age of 22 years and 161 days, Rayudu is a forgotten man. Some of his Under-19 mates, Pathan, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik, have gone far beyond him. |
| Venugopal Rao, who celebrated his 26th birthday five days ago, is a similar story. He was part of the Under-19 team that won the World Cup in 2002. Four years ago, he scored 228 in the fourth innings to chase England A's target of 501, the fourth-highest successful first-class chase, against an attack that included Simon Jones and Sajid Mahmood. |
| Rayudu and Rao are not isolated instances. Scores of players have sparkled at the junior levels only to fade away soon after. These are the orphans of junior cricket. In any case, help may be difficult to come by in the unstructured system of all sport. |
| There exists a huge chasm between representing the country and the state and only 11 players can represent the country at a time against the thousands that aspire to. |
| It is not Umpire's Post's wish to discuss whether BCCI could have helped junior cricket's orphans. However, this column certainly wants to question the board's fiat to the Under-19 players asking them to stop negotiating with Indian Premier League franchisees on the ground that it would take their focus away from the game. |
| The Indian cricket board will determine the IPL price of the Under-19 players after the World Cup going on in Malaysia. BCCI has also made it clear that no junior player would move out of his "catchment area". |
| The board did not explain the rationale of its decision; it seldom does. But it could not have been age. For, the board did not stop the Kolkata franchisee from bidding just under a million dollars for Delhi Ranji Trophy player Ishant Sharma, who, at 19 years and 182 days, is not quite the Grand Dad. |
| BCCI's IPL has created the first free market for cricketers in the world. It has dismantled geographical identities and given them money their predecessors could not have dreamt of. |
| With 88 players required on the field, it is an excellent opportunity for players who are losing the hope of representing the country. In the midst of this, the restriction on junior players comes close to a restrictive trade practice. |