The news that the two Ranji Trophy semifinals have been postponed by three days so that the cricketers playing in the one day series against Australia can assist their states is the best thing to happen to domestic cricket for a long time.

For many years now, domestic cricket has been languishing as a poor cousin under the growing glamour of the international game. Leading players have preferred county contracts, exhibition games or even fulfilling endorsement deals to playing in domestic cricket. Of course it must also be said that the crowded international calendar has frequently meant that players are not able to take part in the various competitions - even if they want to.

In the present case, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has done well in acceding to the request made by the Punjab Cricket Association. The PCA would have missed the services of three key players, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia and Yuvraj Singh, all of whom are in the Indian one day squad currently playing Australia in a five match series. The last game is at Goa on April 6 while the Ranji Trophy semifinals were scheduled to commence on April 5.

Originally India were scheduled to participate in the Sharjah tri series immediately after the one day games against Australia. That tournament starts on April 8 but with the Indian team not going to Sharjah and there being no other international engagements till the tour of Zimbabwe, commencing from the last week of May, the spotlight for a change will be on the final stages of the Ranji Trophy. Which of course is the best thing to happen to India's premier national competition.

It may be recalled that last year, Sachin Tendulkar evinced an interest in playing the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu. The Mumbai Cricket Association asked for a postponement and Tendulkar not only played but went on to get a superb match winning 233 not out. Mumbai then went on to win the Ranji Trophy for the 34th time.

This time too, the MCA made a request, not to postpone, but to advance their quarter-final by two days as their team was to participate in the Champions Cup tournament currently on in Perth. The MCA had also requested for putting off the semi-final till April 8 if they had qualified, but they lost to Punjab.

There was a time when the final stages of the Ranji Trophy attracted huge crowds. If this has long since been a thing of the past, it is partly because the leading players have not taken part. However, just last season, with Mumbai and Tamil Nadu at full strength, big crowds were present on at least three days of the five day semifinal. Even granting the lure of international cricket, there is little doubt that if leading stars take part, the crowds are bound to come. All right, so Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid are not playing but the four remaining teams in the fray have enough international stars to attract spectators to the stadium. Besides the three players mentioned, Punjab have in their ranks RS Sodhi, Vikram Rathour, Pankaj Dharmani and Sarandeep Singh. Baroda's international players are Zaheer Khan, Nayan Mongia and Jacob Martin. Orissa have Shiv Sundar Das and Debasish Mohanty while Railways will be fielding Murali Kartik. In addition, the four teams have other players who have been in very good form this season. So, some excellent fare during the final stages of the Ranji Trophy is well on the cards.

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