Cricket's Chump Change...

....this is not. Fact: IPL is valued at over $4 billion (to put things in perspective, that amounts roughly to half of the government's allocation to NREGA or equals its outlay to agriculture and allied activities this fiscal year, more on that in another post). Two new franchises, Pune and Kochi, are worth more than the original 8 teams put together. Admittedly, Kochi's fate is now on a sticky wicket and murky(ier) details of the deal are expected in coming days. Unfortunately, the numbers involved are so large that nobody is going to give up without a fight and several third umpires will be called upon to reach a settlement. Kings XI Punjab is up for grabs at..hold your breath....$300 million! Every franchise is set to make a profit of Rs. 25 crores (over $5 million) at the end this season. Not surprisingly then, barely 3 years old, some look upon IPL as a major corporate entity, the kind that draws attention from around the world. SK told me that major basketball leagues in the US are valued at several hundreds of millions of dollars, however the NBA is a well-established, long-running institution in its own right, it has been built and strengthened over several years and when "in season", is the cause of major grief (for me) owing to its all-pervasive nature: TV, streaming over broadband, chat fora, etc. etc.

I'm quite convinced that this is a bubble. IPL is on a high only because of the financial backing they have (thus far) from business houses, Bollywood biggies (admittedly a debatable tag) and the like. However, it has a weak foundation of new and emerging talent. They are fortunate to have some of cricket's best (err..old) players currently playing across all teams, but there's scant attention being given to developing a talent pool that we can draw from in the coming years. Hayden, Gilchrist, Jayasuriya, Ganguly have been off-colour for the most part and newer players exhibit more style in their hair than in their stroke play and swing/spin.

Where is fair play in all of this? I was quite excited when the IPL was launched back in 2008, it was an Indian brand that overseas players wanted to be associated with. We finally didn't need to show off the odd English county association. It commanded credibility and attention. Modi and company (MAC for lack of a better acronym) need to be (re)told the story of the hare and the tortoise. The Tatas and Birlas and Ambanis certainly didn't build their empires in a day and its a lesson MAC would do well to heed. IPL shouldn't crumble like the Kotla pitch, but its repute is on a downhill slope and it can redeem itself only by focusing on the sport, not just the game.

BCCI, with its bursting coffers, can well afford to take a step back to reevaluate and redesign its long term association and strategy with IPL. Also ,what this controversy should lead to is a tightening of the bidding and selection process through enhanced transparency and accountability, i.e. good governance. It needs to serve also as a warning when there comes a time to launch another major sporting league in the country. IPL must be saved, if nothing, then for giving us a reason to turn on the idiot box every evening after work and watch the United Nations of the cricket world converge on a level playing field.