India seamer Umesh Yadav laments BCCI after failed Gloucestershire move: "I have precious little to do"

The 32-year-old has accused the governing body of over-protecting him rather than allowing him to flourish

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Umesh Yadav has warned the BCCI they are preventing him from reaching his full potential after revealing he was blocked from joining Gloucestershire last season.

The 32-year-old is a central pillar of the India Test team but has not played any international white-ball cricket for nearly a year.

He is therefore likely to be overlooked for the World Cup in Australia in October and November, severely limiting the amount of cricket he will play in 2020.

Workload management is a key policy of the BCCI, who prefer to keep their players fresh and ready for the senior India team than allow them regular outings.

Players are already blocked from playing in rival T20 leagues and in 2019 Umesh was unable to play for English county side Gloucestershire, who wanted the seamer for seven matches of last season.

Umesh is this week playing for Vidarbha against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy in a desperate attempt to keep himself active.

India are not in Test action again until the end of February when they travel to New Zealand for a two-match series - their last five-day outings until the end of November.

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Bar the climax to the Ranji Trophy and the Indian Premier League, during which Umesh will represent Royal Challengers Bangalore, Umesh will have a watching brief for much of the rest of the year and is appealing to the BCCI for a change to their stance.

"I am 32 years old and the next four to five years are very important," he told the media.

"At this age, the more I bowl, the better I will get. That’s why I am playing five first-class to have some more workload.

"So in a World T20 year, after New Zealand tour, I have only IPL left and then no cricket. If I am not selected for white-ball cricket, I have precious little to do then.

"I got a county offer last season (from Gloucestershire). They wanted me to play seven games but the BCCI workload management policy doesn’t allow me to play more than two or three games. 

"So the deal didn’t work out. Also I had some niggles to take care of after IPL.

"The concern about county cricket is that if they have a professional playing for them, they would hand over the ball to him and expect that bowler to send down maximum overs."