A year of upsets in domestic cricket

Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, Karnataka and Delhi eliminated. Railways and Orissa in the semifinals. Baroda emerging champions. To say that the 2000-2001 Ranji Trophy season was full of surprises would be a gross understatement.

There were a few upset results in the league stage. In the knockout stages, however, where the men are generally separated from the boys, it was thought that the big guns would be there at the finish. But some surprise results led to a rather strange situation in which none of the four semifinalists of the 1999-2000 season - champions Mumbai, runnersup Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka - made it to the last four.

The pre-quarterfinals were not without their own share of unexpected happenings. Karnataka had to bounce back after conceding a slim first innings lead to Assam. Railways upset Maharashtra at Pune. Madhya Pradesh defeating Hyderabad was also a minor surprise. But not many would have expected the shock results to spill over to the quarterfinals. The biggest surprise of the year's competition came at this stage when Punjab humbled 34-time champions Mumbai on their home turf at the Wankhede stadium. Railways, as if to prove that their victory over Maharashtra was no fluke, then got the better of six-time champs Karnataka. And finally, Orissa scored over Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior.

All these unusual results left a most unlikely pairing for the penultimate rounds - Baroda vs Orissa at Baroda and Railways vs Punjab at Mohali. The upsets did not end even at this late stage, with Railways getting the better of hotly fancied Punjab. Orissa, which entered the semifinals for the first time, lost to Baroda, but it was a season to remember for the little-fancied eastern state that topped the East Zone points table by a long way. Much of the credit for their improved showing went to two Indian players Shiv Sunder Das and Debashish Mohanty, who played inspirational roles.

The fact that Baroda and Railways contested the final in April was indicative of changing trends. At the beginning of the season, the odds against these two teams vying for the title would have been astronomical. Railways had never won the trophy and had entered the final only once - in 1987-88. Baroda had last won the trophy in 1957-58 and thereafter had never been serious contenders for the title. But it was good that the Ranji Trophy was no more the prerogative of Bombay, Delhi or Karnataka. The intense competition among teams is now bound to augur well for the domestic game ­ and, consequently, Indian cricket.

The Ranji Trophy final was an engrossing contest. Baroda were favoured to win on home turf, but when they conceded the first-innings lead, it seemed that the tournament would end with yet another major upset. But Zaheer Khan delivered when it mattered most. The Indian left-arm seam bowler picked up five wickets for just 16 runs on the fifth and final day to ensure victory by 21 runs and the return of the Ranji Trophy to Baroda for the first time in 43 years.

At the time of writing, the 2001-2002 Ranji Trophy championship is in its initial phase. But a decision taken during the year by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), now more alive to the welfare of the domestic circuit than in the past, is bound to have a far-reaching effect on the game and the players. As in life, change is the essence of cricket. The game must move with the times, and this is true not only of international cricket but also of the domestic game.

From the 2002-2003 season, the premier national tournament will undergo an almost revolutionary change in format, based on promotion and relegation. The plan, as envisaged, is that the 15 teams which qualify for the knock-out stages during the 2001-2002 season will be placed in Division A, while the 12 who do not qualify will be placed in Division B. After league matches between the competing teams in the two groups, the two sides that finish at the bottom of Division A will be demoted while the two top sides in Division B will earn promotion.

The plan of having two divisions along the lines of the English county championship had been discussed for some time now. This was largely because some of the matches at the zonal level have been hopelessly one sided. It is hoped that the new format will serve as an added incentive for the team and the players to perform well.

The National Cricket Academy, in its second year, made encouraging progress. There was little doubt that its launch last year was one of the best things to happen to Indian cricket, and the youngsters benefited much by the systematic training programme. For the second year running, three cricketers were sent under the Border-Gavaskar scholarship for coaching at the Australian Academy in Adelaide. In addition, zonal academies also started taking shape, and the South Zone Academy was inaugurated in Chennai in May. Former Indian wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani, the chief coach, made it clear, while speaking at the inaugural function, that emphasis would be laid on fielding and physical fitness, which he said was lacking amongst the cricketers in India.

A significant event off the field was former International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Jagmohan Dalmiya taking over as president of the BCCI. At Chennai in September, he defeated the incumbent AC Muthiah by 17 votes to 13 in a rather unexpected result. Muthiah was expected to carry the day, having had a pretty good record to show over two years in office. With a few exceptions, Board presidents have been elected for three years. But Dalmiya, a wily and experienced campaigner, pulled off an upset, although Muthiah's candidate Niranjan Shah won the election for the secretary's post, defeating the incumbent Jaywant Lele.