Yea, I wrote a long post back in my halcyon days of posting in this subforum about how I think the Duleep Trophy should include more games and should become the premier FC competition but due to the political nature of such a move, I don't think that's going to happen. Would be fantastic though, the quality is very high.
In each of the domestic seasons from 2003/04 to 2007/08, the BCCI had invited a sixth 'guest' team for the Duleep Trophy - England Lions (twice), Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka 'A'.
Sri Lanka 'A' (with Vandort, Samaraweera, Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Herath and Prasad) actually did quite well in 2006 by reaching the Duleep final. England had sent a decent contingent in 2003/04 (included Lumb, Pietersen, Prior, Napier, Tredwell, Mahmood and Jones), and an even stronger one in 2007/08 (Yardy, Trott, Kabir Ali, Carberry, Steve Davies, Denly, Hildreth, Joyce, Onions, Panesar, Plunkett, Rashid, Alan Richardson).
I think it would be a very good idea if BCCI expanded the Duleep Trophy to, say, 10 teams and in addition to an 'A' team, invited teams from associate nations. (And picked up the tab for their participation.)
India still easily leads the tables in churning out top quality batting talent, but are somewhere near the bottom of the pile when it comes to bowlers, especially pace bowlers. Not sure whether the stats are skewed by the pitches.
TBH, the dearth of good spin bowling is much more of a worry for me. India has never been good at producing great fast bowlers, the strength was always spin. Indian FC cricket used to generate a never-ending procession of good spinners. Now with shortened boundaries, non-Indian wickets, extensive video analysis of bowlers, high tech bats, the interest of most fans diverted to limited overs versions of the game, good spin bowlers are just not to be found.
True everywhere in the world, I admit. So much so that I look forward to watching Swann bowl these days; a bowler who would have been considered distinctly average just a decade back. If the umpires were as reluctant to give lbws as in the old days, spin bowling would have been extinct by now.