Record century by Vaibhav Suryavanshi raises questions over Domestic Cricket balance

By Wednesday afternoon, Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 190 off 84 balls for Bihar, including a 36-ball century and the fastest 150 in List A cricket, beating AB de Villiers and Jos Buttler.

By Wednesday afternoon, Vaibhav Suryavanshi had smashed 190 runs from 84 balls for Bihar against Arunachal Pradesh. His knock included a century in just 36 balls and the fastest 150 in List A cricket, going past famous names like AB de Villiers and Jos Buttler. Not surprisingly, he quickly became one of the most talked-about topics on X in India.

BCCI president Mithun Manhas headlined the cheerleading by posting: “Record Alert: Bihar posted a total of 574/6 in 50 overs against Arunachal Pradesh at the JSCA Oval Ground, Ranchi, today, recording the highest team total in the history of List A cricket. The previous record was 502/2, scored by Tamil Nadu against Arunachal Pradesh at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Nov 21 2022, during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.”

At just 14 years old, Suryavanshi is already used to attention on social media. His performance came on a day when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also scored hundreds in the Vijay Hazare Trophy against Andhra and Sikkim. Ishan Kishan hit a 33-ball century for Jharkhand against Karnataka, but his team still lost even after scoring 412 for 9. In total, 22 centuries were scored on Wednesday.

There were 10 team scores above 300, two above 400, and one over 500. However, Arunachal Pradesh’s 397-run loss clearly showed the big gap between strong teams and the newer sides from the northeast. Earlier this season, Meghalaya’s Akash Kumar hit eight sixes in a row against Arunachal in the Ranji Trophy. Since these new state teams were added in 2018, such one-sided results have often raised doubts about how balanced domestic cricket really is.

Suryavanshi is now seen as a valuable young talent for the BCCI after an impressive IPL season. Still, he plays in the Plate Group along with northeastern teams, where many players do not yet have proper training facilities. These teams were given First-Class status in 2018 by a Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, and the BCCI has been trying to improve cricket infrastructure in these regions since then.

Over the last two years, the BCCI has worked to bring back the importance of domestic cricket as the main platform for developing young players. However, it remains unclear whether a special talent like Suryavanshi will truly benefit from playing mostly against teams with limited professional experience.