England produced a clinical performance in Adelaide as Jos Buttler and co. used their experience of playing in the Australian Big Bash League and Indian Premier League to perfection to outclass India.
The likes of England players Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, who play regularly in the BBL and know the conditions and pitches inside and out, became the stars of England’s win over India in the semi-final crucial.
“A lot of English players have come here and played this tournament (Big Bash League). It certainly showed,” Dravid said in the post-match press conference.
With BCCI not allowing its players to feature in foreign T20 leagues, Dravid admitted that many players miss out on the opportunities and experience to play in leagues around the world.
As India’s national high season falls during the period when these leagues are played, the Indian cricket board in the past has given only a handful of players to feature in leagues outside the country.
Explaining how this can lead to the collapse of an entire cricket ecosystem with the example of West Indies cricket, Dravid said allowing Indian players out would “end” domestic cricket.
“I think a lot of our boys are maybe missing out on the opportunities to play in a lot of these leagues. It’s really up to BCCI to make that decision, but the fact is that it’s right in the middle of our season and with the kind of demand that there would be for Indian players if you allowed all Indian players to play in those leagues we wouldn’t have national cricket our national cricket our ranji trophy would be over and that would mean a cricket test would be completed.
“I know a lot of people are talking about this but we have to understand the challenges Indian cricket and BCCI will face in a situation like this. We have seen what it has done to West Indian cricket and I certainly wouldn’t want to let Indian cricket go It would definitely affect our Ranji trophy, test cricket and Indian boys playing test cricket is very important,” Dravid said.
India topped Group 2 with four wins from five matches but were heavily outplayed in the semi-finals against England to be knocked out of the competition.
