Once Harsha Bhogle who is a keen follower of the Indian Premier League, tweeted about how the cricketing world viewed the IPL as the "Voldemort" of cricket. I cried laughing at the comparison with the famous fictional character who is more evil than evil itself in the "Harry Potter" series.
Though I do think that this analogy is extreme, I certainly am not a fan of the 'hit and giggle' league.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to be Indian AND an avid cricket follower but still detest the hype and hoopla surrounding the league. Some of the reasons for this are -
- It's not cricket, its an overdose of cric entertainment
IPL can ever be a proper cricketing contest between franchises. In fact cricket is secondary to commercial interests. Mix Bollywood, business persons, VJ's, all sorts of cricketers with talents and ages at the extreme ends, unnecessary on field interviews (let the blokes play for crying out loud!), some outrageously garrish team outfits (eg. golden helmets and pads!) and add a sprinkle of cheer leaders and the resulting product is an overdose of entertainment which is quite nauseating to say the least. And yeah, this carnival of foolery runs for not less that 2 months.
- What about the Indian national team?
Don't understand whether the BCCI is blind or plain stupid. After successive 8 overseas test defeats, don't they realize that something is fundamentally wrong with Indian cricket? Instead of the BCCI, with the money that they have, directing their efforts on a more or less meaningless tournament, why don't they focus on finding and correcting the wrongs. Whether IPL is responsible for the Indian team's pathetic run is debatable but no one can deny the 'fatigue factor' that the tournament brings. I pity Dhoni from the bottom of my heart. I don't think the poor fellow and lot of the others have had a proper break since the last 5 years. Honestly, I also think that the BCCI should consider the fact that by paying such fat pay cheques (which are many times the pay of being a contracted player for the Indian team) to players leads to complacency and less of a drive to win matches in the national jersey. BCCI should get its priorities right. Period.
- Impact on quality of international cricket
Foreign players will be lured by the big money and no one can really blame them. But a genuine cricket fan feels pretty disappointed and cheated to some extent when a Sunil Narine does not play in the WI vs Aus test series or AB De Villiers misses out on the limited over series versus Australia because of injury obtained in Champions League (gosh! so wannabe football) or there is no decider test between Sri Lanka and England so as to allow the SL players to attend the full tournament. Situations like a Morne Morkel bowling to Albie Morkel in the death over and 2 bitter foes from different countries playing in the same team are mildly entertaining but at the end of the day the whole tournament is pretty shallow.
If the BCCI is rolling in that much of surplus cash why can't it .....
- Invest in nurturing the fast bowling talent in India
The Indian bowling is in pits and it is really no secret. To think that in other countries talented quicks like Steven Finn find it so difficult to break into the test team! And for heaven sake, don't blame the pitches for the lack of fast bowlers in the country. Pakistan also doesn't have bouncy pitches but look at the difference in the quality of fast bowling.
- Invest in converting the dead pan pitches into result oriented ones which could possibly revive test cricket in India. Make no mistake, everybody does follow it but near empty stands in test matches in a country where cricket is considered religion is not exactly an ideal situation.
- Make sure that the Indian team have adequate preparation before an abroad tour
Some of the members of the English team arrived in Sri Lanka about a month in advance for a two match series in Sri Lanka in order to acclimatize themselves to the conditions. That level of advance preparedness would maybe not be possible given the packed schedule and the BCCI's dogged determination to dedicate 2 months to IPL.
- Do something to address the loopholes of DRS considering that they are that aggrieved by the technology (which I will for the life of me never understand!)
- Invest in other sports in India - a long shot no doubt but with great power does come great responsibility and it would probably generate some amount of good will for a body headed by politicians (a class of people who are considered comparable to slugs in India)
IPL being a form of escapist entertainment will continue to enthrall the masses. In a country devoid of sporting glory and in which people wake up to some scandal or the other, the glitz and glamour does provide a temporary relief but the question to be asked is who is really benefiting from this and has the IPL changed the game of cricket for the better?
Though I do think that this analogy is extreme, I certainly am not a fan of the 'hit and giggle' league.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to be Indian AND an avid cricket follower but still detest the hype and hoopla surrounding the league. Some of the reasons for this are -
- It's not cricket, its an overdose of cric entertainment
IPL can ever be a proper cricketing contest between franchises. In fact cricket is secondary to commercial interests. Mix Bollywood, business persons, VJ's, all sorts of cricketers with talents and ages at the extreme ends, unnecessary on field interviews (let the blokes play for crying out loud!), some outrageously garrish team outfits (eg. golden helmets and pads!) and add a sprinkle of cheer leaders and the resulting product is an overdose of entertainment which is quite nauseating to say the least. And yeah, this carnival of foolery runs for not less that 2 months.
- What about the Indian national team?
Don't understand whether the BCCI is blind or plain stupid. After successive 8 overseas test defeats, don't they realize that something is fundamentally wrong with Indian cricket? Instead of the BCCI, with the money that they have, directing their efforts on a more or less meaningless tournament, why don't they focus on finding and correcting the wrongs. Whether IPL is responsible for the Indian team's pathetic run is debatable but no one can deny the 'fatigue factor' that the tournament brings. I pity Dhoni from the bottom of my heart. I don't think the poor fellow and lot of the others have had a proper break since the last 5 years. Honestly, I also think that the BCCI should consider the fact that by paying such fat pay cheques (which are many times the pay of being a contracted player for the Indian team) to players leads to complacency and less of a drive to win matches in the national jersey. BCCI should get its priorities right. Period.
- Impact on quality of international cricket
Foreign players will be lured by the big money and no one can really blame them. But a genuine cricket fan feels pretty disappointed and cheated to some extent when a Sunil Narine does not play in the WI vs Aus test series or AB De Villiers misses out on the limited over series versus Australia because of injury obtained in Champions League (gosh! so wannabe football) or there is no decider test between Sri Lanka and England so as to allow the SL players to attend the full tournament. Situations like a Morne Morkel bowling to Albie Morkel in the death over and 2 bitter foes from different countries playing in the same team are mildly entertaining but at the end of the day the whole tournament is pretty shallow.
If the BCCI is rolling in that much of surplus cash why can't it .....
- Invest in nurturing the fast bowling talent in India
The Indian bowling is in pits and it is really no secret. To think that in other countries talented quicks like Steven Finn find it so difficult to break into the test team! And for heaven sake, don't blame the pitches for the lack of fast bowlers in the country. Pakistan also doesn't have bouncy pitches but look at the difference in the quality of fast bowling.
- Invest in converting the dead pan pitches into result oriented ones which could possibly revive test cricket in India. Make no mistake, everybody does follow it but near empty stands in test matches in a country where cricket is considered religion is not exactly an ideal situation.
- Make sure that the Indian team have adequate preparation before an abroad tour
Some of the members of the English team arrived in Sri Lanka about a month in advance for a two match series in Sri Lanka in order to acclimatize themselves to the conditions. That level of advance preparedness would maybe not be possible given the packed schedule and the BCCI's dogged determination to dedicate 2 months to IPL.
- Do something to address the loopholes of DRS considering that they are that aggrieved by the technology (which I will for the life of me never understand!)
- Invest in other sports in India - a long shot no doubt but with great power does come great responsibility and it would probably generate some amount of good will for a body headed by politicians (a class of people who are considered comparable to slugs in India)
IPL being a form of escapist entertainment will continue to enthrall the masses. In a country devoid of sporting glory and in which people wake up to some scandal or the other, the glitz and glamour does provide a temporary relief but the question to be asked is who is really benefiting from this and has the IPL changed the game of cricket for the better?
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