Cricket's Big Bold Canvas

BCCI’s domestic circuit gets bigger, better, inclusive with more players and matches

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

Shakti Singh didn’t graduate to the Indian cricket team, his playing career ending with 50-plus Ranji Trophy outings. But the speedster did leave his mark, an Indian cricketing record that has stood for nearly three decades.

And it all happened in rather tragi-comic fashion way back in 1990-91 when he represented Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy. On a cool November evening, ahead of the third day’s play against Haryana, Singh and his teammates had gathered at a hotel room, talking and cracking jokes after a hard day’s work on the field. “I fell down laughing hard….I had developed cramps and was finding it difficult to breathe. I was rushed to a hospital where I was given at least two bottles of glucose and returned to my room after 2 am,” Singh, 51, tells Outlook. Barely a few hours later, Singh smashed a record 14 sixes on way to a belligerent 128 against an attack that comprised Chetan Sharma, then an India Test and one-day pacer. It was another 26 years before Singh’s national first-class record was equalled by Ishan Kishan during his epic 273 for Jharkhand against Delhi in 2016. Singh is now a BCCI match referee and a Bollywood playback singer.

For Indian cricketers aspiring to make the cut to the senior national team, the Ranji Trophy is the biggest stage to showcase their talent. But the cricketing journey of youngsters in the country begins in other tournaments that form the India domestic circuit, one of the biggest in the world. Last year, Manipur left-arm pacer Rajkumar Rex Singh left the country’s cricket lovers in awe when he claimed all 10 wickets in an innings against Arunachal Pradesh in an under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy match. This, after travelling more than 2,600 km non-stop from Nadiad in Gujarat to Bhubaneswar.