If Australian domestic cricket can be telecast in India, why is the Ranji Trophy being neglected?

The first half of the big international cricket home season for India is over. Virat Kohli’s men beat New Zealand 3-0 and England 4-0 in a total of eight Test matches played across the country. India’s performance against these two sides guarantees that the remaining Tests of the season against Bangladesh, who are no pushovers now, and Australia in the first quarter of the next year are eagerly awaited.

However, in a quiet corner of the huge canvas that is Indian cricket, we have reached yet another knockout stage of the biggest domestic cricket tournament in the country, which has been around for 83 years. The sad part, however, is that none of the games before the knockout stage of the ongoing Ranji Trophy were telecast by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s official broadcaster, Star Sports.

For the past few years, Star Sports have done commendable work in telecasting most of the domestic cricket tournaments played in the country, as they own the sole broadcasting rights to all BCCI matches. Before them, it was NEO Sports that used to do the same till they had a fall-out with the BCCI.

Before this season, Star Sports had been showing at least one Ranji match per round, along with other domestic matches, live on television. This year, though, that has not been the case, with the only exception being the Duleep Trophy, which was played in September as a day-night affair with the pink ball.

No dearth of platforms

The reason? Most of the Ranji Trophy matches clashed with Team India’s long home season, consisting of 13 Test matches, seven of which have already been played, along with the limited-overs games to add.

The logistical issues that Star Sports could be facing in terms of covering both domestic and international cricket simultaneously can be understood, but what about the days when there isn’t any international game going on?

Sample this – the third and final Test against New Zealand ended on Tuesday, October 11, and was broadcast on four of Star Sports’ 10 channels, including HD or high definition ones. The same set of channels broadcast the first ODI in Dharamsala between the two sides on October 16. Star still had the opportunity to accommodate the second round of the Ranji Trophy, which started on October 13, on any of its remaining channels but didn’t. Instead, one of the channels showed a domestic ODI game from Australia’s Matador Cup.

The India-New Zealand ODI series got over on October 29 and the first Test against England began on November 9. In this period, 13 Ranji Trophy games were played at different venues from November 5-8, but not even one of them was telecast. Instead, what the network showed were scheduled progammes and re-runs of the series gone by.

While the Ranji quarter-final between Haryana and Jharkhand is being telecast on Star Sports, the other three games between Hyderabad-Mumbai, Karnataka-Tamil Nadu and Gujarat-Odisha will have to followed through the BCCI’s website and app, or some of the other cricket portals with scorecards, but no access to video feeds. What will be available on the other channels of the Star Sports can be checked here. Star Sports could not be reached to explain the reason behind not telecasting the full league phase of the Ranji Trophy this year.

Matter of priorities

In India, domestic cricket, at least for the last two decades, has always been a step child when it comes to coverage. It is here that the BCCI needs to step in and probably be firm in telling the host broadcaster that they need to telecast the domestic games as well. Star have enough platforms, including a website and app, Hotstar, which also telecasts cricket and other sports for those who can’t follow it on the telly. In fact, in August this year, the Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan was shown on Hotstar as the Star Sports channels were showing the Olympics.

At a time when even Test cricket is struggling for survival when it comes to attendance, promoting domestic cricket on television is an even bigger challenge. “There are hardly any people watching us playing at the ground and it is never a good feeling,” said a Haryana player who requested anonymity. “Now, with games played at neutral venues, even our family and friends can’t be there. Television atleast gives us that chance to be watched in most parts of the country,” he said.

“During IPL, they show the complete post-match presentation ceremony of every game. Sometimes, even the first game’s ceremony has to be shown at the end of the second one, so it all comes down to priorities,” he added.

While the same channels are showing everything, from a jazzed-up version of kabaddi to a football tournament that is semi-domestic and semi-veteran, it clearly comes down to how a sports body markets the game with the correct elements. Although the BCCI has been a champion in marketing the international version of the game, it’s unfortunate that they haven’t been able to do the same when it comes to a historic tournament such as the Ranji Trophy.