Cricket: Injuries and its varying responsibility

Everything in the cricket world seems to be at peace now that the Champions league T20 has ended and the IPL is still at a safe distance. Four test teams are visiting hosts from the subcontinent and Australia. While West Indies will aim to carry their good form from T20 into Test cricket in Bangladesh, England is ready to prove they can tackle spin in India. South Africa travels down under to reaffirm their place at the top while New zealand might have a tough time tacking the ever increasing number of mystery spinners in Sri Lanka. In short, we are ready to see the cricket season begin. Good old way. This seems to make everything at peace in the cricket world. Cricket Australia and England Cricket Board will now get the time to talk about themselves rather than the BCCI in their rendezvous with the media.

While everything else comes ‘back to normal’, another aspect of the game has managed to stay a norm – Injuries. With the ECB deciding to have an extensive warm up period in India, the visitors are playing their third warm up game against Haryana today. Although this might have prepared the English cricketers to get used to Indian conditions and pitches, the ECB have had to deal with another problem. Yes, injuries.

Steven Finn and Stuart Broad are both injured due to injuries they picked up in the warm up games. Cut to another important series beginning down under. Shane Watson, the man who Cricket Australia has had to carefully manage given his importance as an all rounder and his constant tussle with injuries, is out again! His tryst with injuries continues in spite of Cricket Australia calling the crucial all-rounder home half way through the champions league t-20. All three of them, Finn, Broad and Watson have picked up injuries ahead of important matches with Watson sure not to play the first test at least.

Cricket Australia called Watson back from the CL T20 to avoid injuries and he got himself injured playing for New South Wales! The tone of the statement could have been different had Shane Watson picked up this injury while playing for the Sydney Sixers in the CL T20. The BCCI would have been directly responsible for depriving the cricket world of a chance to see Shane Watson play against South Africa. Similarly, the ECB wouldn’t be responsible for putting Finn and Broad in jeopardy. Too many warm up games? Hell, no!

It is lame to blame these injuries on the respective boards. Its time everybody stops blaming the cash-rich leagues of the BCCI for injuries at least. Just like rain or bad weather, an injury is an evil that is natural. Everybody knows this, inclusive of the cricket boards everywhere. The BCCI’s t20 leagues might have surely caused other problems, but the recent injuries in warm ups and domestic games call for a broader outlook when the ‘back to normal’ state of cricket ends and in come the franchisees again.