Dravid hopes for regular season

Indian captain Rahul Dravid has spoken of his desire to see a fixed home season for his country, similar to those employed by England and, usually, Australia and South Africa. India’s last home Test series was against England in March 2006; before that December 2005 against Sri Lanka. Dravid has suggested a regular pattern of series in the midwinter months of November and December.

Speaking to rediff.com, he said: “A lot of cricket is being played nowadays. It is going to put a lot of pressure on players and it is a question of coping. It is about devising strategies on how to cope with the amount of cricket being played and how they are going to go about it.”

The last time India managed to schedule a Test series for such a window was against England in 20012, and before that against Sri Lanka in 199798. Most have come either in October, or in March and April.

“For countries like India we don’t have a set summer,” Dravid continued. “England are always here in the summer, Australia are always at home in the summer. For us every year is different; we can be in different parts of the world, we can be playing in July in West Indies one year and in England some year and not playing in India in November or December, which is winter and which is where we should be playing.”

He felt planning and preparation would also be made much easier with the calendar as a standard: “It makes a huge difference I think personally from a captaincy point of view – of managing your resources, managing your players if you know exactly where you are going to be five-six months in the year. For us to manage our workloads and manage our teams is a lot more different than for the teams that have the advantage of knowing exactly where they are in their cricket season.”

India’s next home series is against Pakistan, in Dravid’s desired window. They play three Tests there, then move on to Australia for a further four in late December and January.