Former Indian cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri has opined that cricket should go the football way soon, meaning it should get rid of the T20I bilateral series. Cricketers should be allowed to play franchise cricket, and then they can be on national duty for the ICC T20 World Cup, which would happen once in every two years.
Shastri was the head coach of the Indian cricket team for many years, and he shared his own experience of how he felt while coaching during the T20I bilateral series. He said that he does not remember too many matches from those series, but he has a memory of what happened in the T20 World Cups.
“There’s too much of bilateral stuff going on in T20 cricket. I’ve said that (before), but even when I was the coach of India, I could see it happening in front of my eyes. It should go the football way, where, in T20 cricket, you just play the World Cup. Bilateral tournaments – no one remembers,” said Shastri during an interaction with ESPNCricinfo.
During the same chat, he added that when a team wins the T20 World Cup, fans always remember it, but they may tend to forget the results of the bilateral series.
Ravi Shastri wants all countries to have their own franchise league
Ravi Shastri concluded by saying that each country should be allowed to have its own franchise cricket and domestic cricket, which would help them financially and also give the players regular opportunities to play. He felt a T20 World Cup can be held every two years to determine which country has the best team.
It will be interesting to see if the cricket boards think the same way. Apart from reducing bilateral cricket, another solution could be organizing a tri-series or four-nation Super Series in the calendar year.
