Indian Premier League comes to London?

I wish I had been born in the 1950s rather than the mid-1970s then I might have been able to draw some parallels between the Kerry Packer Circus and the funfair that is the Indian Premier League. (Actually, I think my ideal time to have been born would have been 100 years ago, so I'd have had all the fun of being an adult in the 1930s and 1940s - the Blitz, Vera Lynn, the golden age of jazz, Bradman, wanton wartime shagging - with a relatively low chance of being sent into active combat, especially considering my eyesight).

Anyway. Among the things to have come out about the IPL this weekend was the news that Lord's and the Oval, and possibly other grounds, might stage exhibition matches for the IPL teams. This was reported by the world's media after an article in The Times yesterday, although to be fair the first whispers came two days earlier in a piece written in the Birmingham Post by George Dobell (I'll have a pint of Guinness, George).

It strikes me as odd that the ECB can bleat about the involvement of players from the rebel Indian Cricket League in county cricket, saying that they fear the endorsement of a competition that could threaten their monopoly here, and yet invite in the IPL to directly promote another country's tournament rather than our own Twenty20 Cup. Actually, it's not odd, just a sign of how desperate the ECB is to kiss up to the BCCI.

Why not make our Twenty20 competition better than the IPL's, rather than allow the IPL to make money over here? The Domestic Structure Review Group is considering its options and the results will be revealed in a couple of weeks. There have been calls for them to be radical, perhaps even to go for city-based franchises rather than the old counties, but if we brush aside the stardust of the "new" IPL, what is actually being planned in India that is so innovative?

It is the same basic competition as the Twenty20 Cup. There will still be three stumps, two batsmen at any one time and a small round ball. Many of the games will be under floodlights. There will be music and razzmatazz. Any other fripperies are irrelevant. The only difference is that the world's best players are competing in India and being paid stacks of money for it. Perhaps all the ECB needs to do is to remove the restrictions on overseas players over here and allow counties to strike business partnerships with the money men to sign the biggest names.

However, I have my own radical masterplan: first, instead of 20 overs a side, why not have an unlimited number (more is always better, right?); then, instead of having the match over and done with inside three hours, expand it to four or possibly five days; finally, and this is a good one, let each side have two chances to bat. It sounds revolutionary, but it might just work. I'd be happy with it, anyway.

Comments

[Balaji Viswanathan]

So, how about India starting a football league like English Premier League? After all its just the same big ball, same twenty-odd players and a green turf that England has, India can also provide. So, you think that league will rival EPL?

In the same way, just because it is the same 3 stumps and two batsman at a time need not make England produce a IPL.