In one of the earlier posts related to Indian Premier League (IPL), we had enthusiastically talked about Positive effects of IPL. Before the start of IPL 2012, India had lost Test series to England 0-4 in England, to Australia 0-4 in Australia and India failed to qualify for the CB Series and Asia Cup finals. After that, the exciting IPL 2012 happened and all of a sudden, everyone forgot about the most depressing season of Test Cricket for India. And then, new season of Cricket started with tours of Sri Lanka, New Zealand followed by T20 World Cup. As if this schedule was not hectic for Indian team, players were sent to the Champions League in October, this year. And now, we have seen what has happened with Indian team versus England in home series.
In the same post, I had mentioned that there are positive as well as negative effects of IPL. Let's try to find out what aspects of IPL are NOT good for Indian Cricket, particularly, Indian Test Cricket, since the time is right to raise some hard questions.
Bad scheduling of IPL?
1. IPL is scheduled in April and May, which are hottest months of Indian summer. Traditionally, these months were reserved for rest to the players before next season of Cricket - domestic and international - begins. If players are made to play 15 high intensity games in 10 different parts of India, the travel and over-Cricket is bound to take a toll on players, physically and mentally. Finally, who wants to work on Holidays, even if one is paid! 2. It becomes compelling for BCCI to organize this event in these months as Indian Team neither travels nor hosts any international tournament in these months. But, this also means, players are overly exhausted, they do not have recovery time, they do not have time to operate themselves on injuries. 3. At the same time, no other international team has compulsion to adjust team's schedule according to IPL. International players have limited