The Indian Premier League (IPL) has just wrapped up its
fifth or sixth season of Tweenty20 cricket, I’m not really sure and I don’t
really care how many seasons there have been, with one franchise team beating
another.
There were most likely fireworks during the game, literally
rather than figuratively, to try and keep spectators interested, along with
other entertaining gimmicks such as cheerleaders that have no link to cricket
whatsoever.
Local fans probably turned up and tuned into the game,
keeping administrators, sponsors and so forth happy. Said fans may have been happy or sad at the
result, while various punters would have either taken home a dall or a
vindaloo.
The largest headlines in relation to the league though have
been about alleged match-fixing by various players, hitting whatever
credibility the IPL had for a 6 into the crowd, with the ball likely never to
be recovered.
The IPL is making lots of noises, this time about an
investigation into the affair, but it is unlikely that any real change will be
felt. There is too much pride and money
at stake for too many, and the fans are easily distracted.
Twenty20 is not about the traditional fan of cricket; it is
not about century-old competition between national teams that play for
patriotism and pride. It is not about skill and application and technique, but
brawn, luck, bravado and power. It is
about the new Tweeting fan who can’t watch anything for more than three hours
that doesn’t have some sort of pyromania.
 |
| Not your typical IPL fan. |
Everything about the IPL is about speed and noise, smoke and
mirrors, and in the leagues haste to establish and sell itself, proper process
has been ignored. Amongst other things
this has allowed the bookmakers to get their betting-slips and rupees into the
pockets of the players in return for poor performances.
And so now we have official word that the comic-book version
of cricket that has been peddled really can’t be taken seriously at all, even
though there are very short odds at it being fixed or removed.
This isn’t the first time cricket has faced a crisis like
this, not even remotely. The last time
there was this level of concern at administration of cricket, an Australian
newspaperman decided he would set up his own league, which he then had managed
and administered properly (like a successful business).
His league was known as World Series Cricket and
involved…well, if you need to know more about it, go to Wikipedia.
The point is that the only way to see off the challenges
that the IPL is bringing to Cricket is through competition.
Cricket boards all over the world have tried to jump on the
Twenty20 bandwagon with mixed success, though no one league stands out like the
IPL. Issues in providing competition relate
largely to the ability to schedule a competition (the Cricket calendar is
already more saturated than a garlic naan) and ability to match the IPLs big
payments.
However, there are multiple sports leagues that successfully
exist across different countries and codes (e.g. Champions League, Super 15
etc) that are properly administered for long-term success, provide excellent
monetary return and all support the highest level of competition (between
nations).
 |
| Also, they have better signs. (photo courtesy of Indiatimes.com) |
