Team India (Image Credit: BCCI) If only wishes were horses. After honoring his commitment to the Burma Army and England cricket fans by gifting them with a two-day victory in Melbourne in the fourth Test to make the Ashes look a little more competitive, dear old Santa traveled to India, snuck into the room of a die-hard Indian cricket fan, and on New Year’s Day asked him to create a fan wish list for Indian cricket for 2026 Here’s what Santa found…Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!1. Since it’s all about the fan, can we be a little selfish? Can you please tell BCCI that we are the biggest stakeholders after the players and that if we don’t watch the matches on TV or throng the stadiums, the product they are showing and promoting looks really bad? So can you please tell them to provide us with cleaner toilets when we come to the stadiums and access to clean drinking water – either free or at a reasonable cost? We hope we are not asking too much.
Why Gautam Gambhir needs to rethink extra batting cushion in 2026
2. We really care about Indian cricket and its global presence. Can we ask for a single person responsible for running the game, rather than honest admins who try to do an honest job but due to the nature of the role often face no accountability when things go wrong?3. Can we have agenda-less personalities like the Director of Cricket or the CEO and give them the freedom to run the show? Let them plan ‘A’ tours, manage junior and senior player camps before major home or away series, decide player workloads and have the power to pull players from lucrative franchise leagues to keep them fresh for important red-ball assignments. Doesn’t Indian cricket deserve that level of efficiency and accountability? Doesn’t a Test cricket fan deserve to see the game played at six or seven fixed venues that have a history of watching and appreciating the nuances of Test cricket? Also, can we please say goodbye to test pitches where goals and wins are delivered faster than quick trade apps deliver our goods?
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What is the most important demand of Indian cricket fans for 2026?
4. We know that leaks in bathrooms and water tanks often result in discolored walls and foundation damage. Please tell the players, coaches and administrators, of course, to avoid leaking information to select media outlets just to settle scores with people they don’t like. The past year has seen too many locker room rumblings where the head coach and players have covered each other through the media.5. Can we see more players rewarded for their performances in domestic cricket? The likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sarfaraz Khan, despite toiling seriously on the domestic circuit, have not been rewarded with consistent international opportunities. The first step was taken when the selectors rewarded Ishan Kishan’s success in domestic cricket with a recall to the T20 World Cup. Now can we see some new faces for the Sri Lanka Test series in August? As great as the Indian men’s team has been in T20Is, we as fans still care about red ball cricket. Ask any of us what our favorite moment of 2025 was, and apart from Harmanpreet Kaur leaping at cover to dismiss Nadine de Klerk off Deepti Sharma to seal the Women’s ODI World Cup final for India, it would be Mohammed Siraj uprooting Gus Atkinson’s stump at the Oval. This wicket resulted in a thrilling six-run victory as India leveled the series in England at 2-2. We thought it would signal the start of a red-ball renaissance after a disappointing 2024, but what unfolded at home against South Africa was nothing short of a horror show.
Sarfaraz Khan (AP Photo)
6. Speaking of which, can we ask for a proper No.3 batting instead of players who are not yet ready for the big stage to earn the position based on success in white-ball cricket? After all, many of India’s cricketing greats have batted in this position.7. Can you quietly whisper in India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav’s ear that he is allowed to hit the ball from the offside and that he has a range of amazing strokes, not just the arcing shot between mid-wicket and long-leg? Also, can you ask him if his right wrist is okay? And if not, can you provide him with a magic potion that will cure it quickly and allow him to play the T20 World Cup without any problems? If India don’t win this tournament, many people’s jobs, including Surya’s, may be in jeopardy. And the Indian team cannot carry passengers among the top four in a competitive multi-nation tournament.8. With head coach Gautam Gambhir making an impassioned plea for people to “stay in their own domain” – and not commenting on whether India would benefit from splitting the coaching role for red-ball and white-ball formats – can you tell him to also tell the players to stay in their own domain and not make emotional speeches about patriotism and nationalism at press conferences or award ceremonies? Especially before the team plays Pakistan in Colombo on February 15? After all, fans don’t care if a player looks at politics as a career option after retirement!
Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir (Photo by BCCI)
9. Can we ask you to tell all cricket lovers not to be so angry and toxic on social media and start trends and hashtags to make ‘Player Ro’ appear bigger or bigger than ‘Player Ko’?10. Santa, we know we’ve already gone overboard with our requests, but if it’s not too much trouble, can you also find the Asia Cup trophy we won last September in Dubai? It would be great if we could have it before the 50+ version comes out next year. He probably does. Thank you. Happy new year.
Harmanpreet Kaur et al. enjoying their big moment with the trophy (Image credit: BCCI)
INDIAN CRICKET: UNIQUE NUMBERS 2025
- 1 – Deepti Sharma (58 and 5/39) became the first all-rounder to score a double fifty and five wickets in a World Cup game, achieving the feat in the final against SA Women at the DY Patil Stadium on November 2.
- 21 years 278 days – Shafali Verma (87; 2/36 and one catch) became the youngest in cricket history to be named man of the match in an ODI World Cup final on 2 November.
- 14 years 250 d – Suryavanshi became the youngest to score a hundred in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Bihar vs Maharashtra in Kolkata on 2nd December.
- 1 – The Kolkata Test between India (189 and 93) and South Africa (159 and 153), played between 14 and 16 November, was the first ever played on Indian soil with a total total of less than 200 in all 4 innings.
- 59 balls Taken by Suryavanshi to race to his 150 during his innings of 190 off 84 balls for Bihar vs Arunachal Pradesh in Ranchi on December 24, the fastest by any batsman to 150 in List A cricket.
- 408 – India’s defeat in the Guwahati Test vs. South Africa in November 2025, their biggest defeat in terms of runs.
—Stats: Rajesh Kumar
