Saturday, January 2, 2010

Once Again India Set To Play Sri Lanka

It has hardly been a week since the fifth one day international between India and Sri Lanka got abandoned. However, the issue is not regarding the Kotla pitch. But, it is the frequency with which India have been playing Sri Lanka off late. The 2 test and 5 one day matches played by India against Sri Lanka is still afresh in the minds of the people. Now, India and Sri Lanka are entitled to play yet another tri series that will be featuring Bangladesh as well and starting on 4th January at Dhaka. Not only are these two the only instances where matches between India and Sri Lanka have been played but there are a few more as well.

Earlier in 2009 somewhere in Jan-Feb 2009, India and Sri Lanka have played a 5 match one day series which India won 4-1 in Sri Lanka. Then comes the tri nation simple tournament (Compaq Cup) that involved New Zealand in addition to India and Sri Lanka somewhere in September prior to the ICC Champions trophy 2008 2009 that once again India won. And before that, India had toured Sri Lanka in August 2008, bringing the number of tournaments involving the two countries to four. Added to that would be the two mega events in ICC Champions Trophy 2009 (though that tournament didn't involve a match between India and Sri Lanka) and the ICC world T20.

And going still back would be just foolish. It is just not understandable as to why tournaments involving the same two teams are repeatedly being played in such small intervals. A similar such feat was evident when Bangladesh played Zimbabwe repeatedly for 5 times in a time span of just more than a year somewhere in between 2005-06. On the other hand, there are matches between some teams that have been a long time since last played. Like, India last played New Zealand in early 2009 and prior to that it was somewhere in September 2009. Then the fate of an India-Pakistan tie is very much in front of us. So is the case between Australia and Pakistan.

I last remember Australia last playing Pakistan somewhere in 2004 which Australia won (obviously) and since then onwards, tournaments involving both the teams have been canceled and Pakistan has never been to Australia for a test series until present. It would not be wrong to call the recently started Australia-Pakistan test series as a new episode involving the two teams. This is in the recent past the case involving all teams that are bound to tour Pakistan. And the ICC is not even found to shift the venues to some neutral venue like UAE which hosted the one day games between Australia and Pakistan. With this, fans who intend in watchin their favourite teams clash have to wait for the ICC to schedule matches or else be contended with the highlightes of the previous matches.

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