Don’t Remember A Single Match In The Last 6-7 Years As Coach Of India: Ravi Shastri Bats For Radical Change In Cricket Calendar

The 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) finished with Gujarat Titans becoming winners after an astounding 74 games were played during the 15th edition of the cash-rich league.

The expansion of the two new sides, both of whom were engaged with the knockout phases of the competition and one of whom proceeded to win it, didn’t prompt a more extended season this year due to an alternate configuration yet is the number of matches is probably going to add from the following year onwards.

IPL May Get Longer In Future, Nothing Is Overdose In India: Ravi Shastri

Remembering this point, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that the IPL might get longer still and bilateral T20 cricket should be done away with. 

“That is the future. The NFL can go on for seven or eight months of the year, the IPL is not far behind. You will have to break it up. Give a break to the player and come back in a new corridor (in the cricket calendar). Tomorrow there could be 140 games split 70-70, two seasons (in the same year), you never know,” said Shastri on ESPNCricinfo.  

Shastri was one of the experts for Star Sports in the IPL and got back to the commentator’s box interestingly since taking over as India’s head coach in late 2017 for the final. 

“That is the way it is going to go, that is the way it has developed. You might think it’s overdose, but nothing is overdose in India. I have been seeing how people have watched (the tournament) these last two months, especially in these post-Covid times, and they are loving every bit of it.

“They are almost having withdrawal symptoms after it all got over, that they can’t have their usual scenes after 7’o’clock in the evening,” said Shastri.  

Ravi Shastri Believes Bilateral T20 Cricket Should Be Done Away With

Shastri had said during his period as head coach of India that bilateral T20 cricket should be done away with. He emphasized that T20s ought to be played at the international stage just in the T20 World Cup. 

“There is too much of bilateral stuff going on in T20. I have said that 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 you just play the World Cup.

“No one remembers bilateral matches. I don’t remember a single game in the last six-seven years as coach of India. If the team remembers the World Cup, they will remember it. Unfortunately, we didn’t, so I don’t remember that either.

“But where I am coming from is, you play franchise cricket around the world, each country has its own franchise tournament. And then, every two years, you come and play a World Cup. Pick your teams from there and play a World Cup,” he said. 

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