IPL schedule is tough on the players, says Dhoni

may o8

It's jet-set cricket and there's no time to rest. That may well be the mantra of T20 cricket, but it's time to have a closer look at the schedule of the Indian Premier League. In a space of eight days, Team Chennai have been in four different cities, playing four back-to-back games.

And that too in the month of May! Not that Chennai are the only sufferers, the other teams, too, are also going through the same grind. But the players, who bunk domestic cricket after a month's tour where the games are well spaced-out, are not in the mood to raise their voices. Reason, well, that's for everyone to guess!

Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan paceman and the Delhi spearhead, who hasn't yet learnt how to sugarcoat the bitter pill, puts it flatly. "It's good money, good life. We have to make the sacrifice," Asif told TOI the other day.

The sacrifice he is talking about is the fear of a burn-out. This may well be a twenty-over game, but there's no running away from the fact that it is as intense as an ODI.

Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who can't figure out how to stem the rot as his team goes on losing match after match, tries to rationalize. "The schedule is tough on the players and everyone concerned. But then that's fair enough. The tournament has to end within a given time-frame, otherwise, the interest won't be there," he said, as a TNCA official standing beside him vehemently nodded his head in appreciation of Dhoni's diplomacy.

Adam Gilchrist talked about the other side of the coin. "In a schedule like this, it's difficult to get the momentum back once you lose it," Gilly said, adding that the moment Team Hyderabad lost a couple of games, they "went on losing a few more".

Another team that has suffered the most due to this cramped schedule is Mumbai Indians. Sachin Tendulkar went around the country with the hope of getting fit, but there was just no way he could recover from the groin injury in such a short time.

Mumbai coach Lalchand Rajput tried his best not to make an issue out of this. "I know, it's difficult to get fit in such a short time, but then, that's the nature of the tournament. I'm sure there will be bigger gaps between games next year," Rajput said.

As the super bosses of the BCCI were either too "busy" or "out of reach", joint secretary MP Pandove said, "True, it's a little hard on the players. But then, the ICC window is so small that we had to cramp in the matches."