Sunil Gavaskar Urges Football-Style Leagues and Separate Records for Cricket

Former India cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar has suggested dividing international cricket into divisions, similar to football leagues, to protect the value of cricket records. He wrote in his column that T20 records between top teams and weaker new teams should not be counted together.

The Problem of Low Scores

Gavaskar pointed to recent matches involving Associate member nations where teams were bundled out for very low totals. Mongolia was recently bowled out for just 13 runs while chasing 193 against Thailand in a T20 World Cup qualifier. The lowest T20I record belongs to Ivory Coast for scoring only 7 runs against Nigeria, while Mongolia also managed just 10 runs against Singapore in 2024. He argued that it is unfair to compare bowler statistics from these mismatched games with records made when full member countries play each other.

Records and Domestic Cricket

Gavaskar also mentioned Nepal player Dipendra Singh Airee, who broke Yuvraj Singh's record for the fastest T20I half-century by reaching it in nine balls against Mongolia. Yuvraj had set the previous mark in 12 balls against England in 2007. While praising Nepal's rapid growth in the sport, Gavaskar questioned if records set against lower-tier teams should carry the same weight. He also suggested applying similar changes to the Ranji Trophy. He noted that players in the Plate Group often face much weaker competition compared to the Elite division, yet their records count the same even though new state teams sometimes rely on hired players due to poor local infrastructure.

Context

International cricket currently features a wide gap in skill levels between established Test-playing nations and newer Associate countries. Dividing teams into tiers or creating separate record categories could help maintain fairness in cricket statistics as the sport continues to spread globally.