Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar urged all stakeholders involved to give greater weight to the Ranji Trophy and to the players who perform day in and day out in domestic cricket. He cited the lack of coverage for players like Ravichandran Smaran, Ayush Doseja, and Sanat Sangwan, saying the coverage should be on similar lines as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the U19 World Cup, saying the performances in the Ranji Trophy count for as much as the other two tournaments, if not more.
Gavaskar also said that the media is going gaga over Jammu and Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi just because he got picked in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction by the Delhi Capitals for INR 8.40 crore. He argued that if he remained unsold, then he would have conveniently been ignored by the media even if he managed to take heaps and heaps of wickets.
In the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season, Nabi has been breathing fire, taking 55 wickets in nine matches, and he will be the key for the Paras Dogra-led side in the final against Karnataka, which began on Tuesday, February 24, in Hubballi.
“Where are the stories of players like Ravichandran Smaran, Ayush Doseja, Sanat Sangwan, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Abhinav Tejrana, Siddhesh Lad, Aman Mokhade, Armaan Jaffer and Kunal Chandela, who have all scored over 700 runs this year?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
“Where are the write-ups on Mayank Mishra and Siddharth Desai, to name two bowlers who have taken more than 40 wickets this season? Yes, there have been write-ups about Auqib Nabi. But could that be because he was snapped up in the IPL auction? If that had not happened, he, too, would perhaps have been ignored. Like the names mentioned above,” he added.
‘Ranji Trophy should be given prominence’
Gavaskar, a part of the 1983 World Cup-winning squad, argued for the Ranji Trophy being given the highest prominence as the National Championship, saying performers should not be sidelined and that special preference shouldn’t be given to the U19 World Cup and the IPL.
He stated that players who perform in Ranji should be the ones to get ahead of the line in the fray for selection to the national team.
“The Ranji Trophy is the National Championship and should therefore be given prominence. Perhaps because the players are not always on television, like the U-19 and IPL boys, their efforts do not get the gushing headlines that others receive. Then there is the lament that U-19 World Cups and the IPL are a shortcut to the India cap. But who is to be blamed? Only the selectors?,” wrote Gavaskar.
“Or also those who sideline Ranji Trophy performers to some remote corner of their papers, or do not even mention them on their television shows and public media platforms? With India on the back foot in the World Cup, hopefully, the Ranji Trophy final will get more coverage. Or is that too much to hope for?” he added.
