Sunil Gavaskar calls for football-style divisions in international cricket

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar. (FILE photo/Sportzpics)

Batting great and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has called for a standardisation of records, particularly in T20 Internationals, and maybe introducing football-style divisions in cricket to that effect. Gavaskar has also said that something similar needs to be taken into consideration in the Ranji Trophy as well. Gavaskar took the example of Mongolia’s recent T20I match against Thailand, in which they were all out for just 13 runs while chasing 193 in the men’s T20 World Cup Sub Regional Asia Qualifier A.

“That, of course, is not the lowest score in this format,” said Gavaskar in his column on Mid-Day about Mongolia’s paltry score. “That dubious record belongs to Ivory coast who were bowled out for just 7 runs against Nigeria. Mongolia in 2024 had got only 10 runs against Singapore in another T20 international,” he said. Gavaskar feels that while these matches are rightly called internationals since they are between two teams representing their countries, the question is whether there should be “some sort of minimum standard before stats from these mismatched games are considered for records”.

“When a team is dismissed for such paltry scores, the bowler’s stats can only be bettered when the emerging ICC Associate member countries play against each other. To equate it with the stats when full member country teams play against each other is simply not fair,” wrote Gavaskar.

“In the football leagues there are divisions where there’s a promotion and relegation at the end of a season. So whatever records are set they are mentioned as being in the Divisions, in which they have been achieved in. Maybe something similar should be thought of where depending on the division in which countries are playing the differentiation is clear to everybody.”

Gavaskar also cited the example of Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee breaking Yuvraj Singh’s record for the fastest T20I half-century. Yuvraj had famously got to it in 12 balls in the 2007 T20 World Cup match against England in which he hit six sixes in a single over off Stuart Broad. Airee did it in nine balls in a match against Mongolia.

“Make no mistake, Nepal is making rapid strides as we saw in the T20 World Cup in India earlier in the year when they almost beat England. So, it’s no surprise when its batters and bowlers pulverise the other Associate country teams. But should that count for a record?”

Gavaskar also said that a similar consideration need to be made for records in the Ranji Trophy so that those made in matches played in the Plate Group don’t end up overshadowing those made against tougher opposition.

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“Most of the new state teams did not even have proper infrastructure and so hired players from other states who couldn’t find a place in their home state teams. These players were good but unable to break through into their home state teams and so went to the state teams in the Plate Division. When most, if not all, played against teams from the Elite division, they were found wanting and it just exposed the yawning gap in the standard between the divisions. Yet the records set are still called records because they are playing in the Ranji Trophy,” he said.