On The Indian Premier League

The much awaited auctions for IPL has been conducted. Players have been bought for millions of dollars with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Andrew Symonds emerging as the big winners. A few points worth considering,
First, will IPL work? I have my doubts. Cricket in India is popular as a subset for nationalism; there is no audience even for local matches featuring top Indian stars. Its hard to believe that this contest among cities will generate that much interest.

I agree club fans can be as passionate as followers of national team. The English premier League is a good example. Even in India, the fans of East Bengal and Mohan Bhagan are second to none when it comes to supporting their teams. However, these kind of rivalries take time to build up; they require a bit of history. Club rivalries cannot be created in a single day. Agreed that the Premier Hockey League has been a relative sucscess but that is  mainly because Hockey fans in India hardly get to watch quality international players in action. With the cricket calendar packed as it is, who will have the time to follow IPL? And what exactly would be the need to do so?

No doubt, T-20 format is viewer friendly and there might be  initial novelty value. Can it be sustained in the long term? The jury is still out on that.

Second, player salaries. The million dollar figures being touted may be astronomical by cricketing standards but they are still not a patch on sports like Football where a single player may be traded for entire amount pledged at the IPL auction. Also, salaries are not really that high when you remember they are for a three year contract. So Sachin Tendulkar will make about 5 crores in a 3 years. He probably makes as much from a 3-day-a-year commercial commitment.

What might be worrying though is that for fringe cricketers or those from countries where cricket is not as commercialized, the  pull of IPL  money may prove too strong. Nevertheless, crickets have the right to earn their livlihood and if their boards can’t pay them enough, they will move on. It’s the market stupid!

I don’t think there will be much ”damage” in case of cricketing powerhouses like India and Australia–however, as I said before, the smaller countries would loose players.

Third, the most interesting aspect of IPL would be its effect on B.C.C.I. Until now, the board has ruled cricket in India virtually unchallenged. It lack of openness and professionalism has not received sufficient attention as the cricket in India is so lucrative that even the Indian board can make millions.

Now, the board will face a different set of challengers led by corporate bigwigs like Vijay Mallya and Mukesh Ambani. Its one thing to brush aside the ICC or the Australian board; it is another to take on people whose billions put even B.C.C.A’s overflowing coffers to shame. They are not the kind of people who will let the board roll over them. They have invested serious money in buying their franchise and they would certainly expect a sufficient return. If that means changing the international calendar to accommodate IPL, the board despite all its professed commitment to ICC future calender will have to take steps to address their concerns.

While it is always a dangerous exercise to predict the future, arguably, the board will face direct challenges to its authority from the franchises. The same money which has allowed them to buy the best cricketeters from the world permits them to concieve launching their own international calender. Paradoxically enough, more sucessful is the IPL, the greater will be the challenges B.C.C.I/ICC will face. It would be useful to remember that F.I.F.A has many times lamented that the football clubs are too powerful. A similar situation can develop in cricket.

Finally, the pondit pointed me to this report in the Sydney Morning Herald which claimed that Indians love Symonds because he emerged as the second most expensive player in the IPL auctions. That’s about as idiotic as it gets. Symonds is certainly a decent one day player. More importantaly, for the franchise owners, the recent controversies only add to his worth. Controversy sells!