Question of the Day: How do you solve a problem like the IPL?

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)

While the ICC is at the behest of the BCCI, there is hope that some good can come out of this latest IPL scandal for the administrators to look at the long-term interest of the game, and the fans.