Cricket is the new football

That was the glib phrase repeated ad nauseam after England won the Ashes in 2005, and the nation's cricketers briefly supplanted an overhyped and underachieving football team in the public domain. Within a few weeks though, with Michael Vaughan's side slipping up in Pakistan, normalcy was restored and Jose Mourinho, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and friends regained their customary position on the front and back pages.

On Tuesday night, Gerrard was the inspiration as his Liverpool side upset Internazionale, Europe's form team, in the European Champions League. With all due respect to the football World Cup [rarely more than five genuine contenders, less in the case of cricket and rugby], the Superbowl, baseball's World Series and every other team competition, the Champions League is the Holy Grail, the toughest competition to win. Inter themselves had spent more than $500 million during the past decade in a bid to end a drought that stretches back to 1965. Chelsea have invested the GDP of a small country in the new millennium, and not even managed a place in the final.

Their captain, John Terry, is said to take home £135,000 a week. Gerrard, the talisman when Liverpool won the competition in 2005, is rumoured to take home £120,000. That's a lot of money by any standards, but to pocket it, he plays close to 60 games a season, many of them of bruising intensity. And with his all-action style, Gerrard usually ends up covering 12 to 13 kilometres of turf over the 90 minutes.

Less than a day after his heroics at Anfield, the nascent Indian Premier League had its player auction, with the eight franchises working within the confines of a $5 million salary cap. With no icon player [an Indian star obliged to play for his city/region], the Chennai team bankrolled by India Cements could afford to fork out an astonishing $1.5 million for MS Dhoni, India's flamboyant wicketkeeper-batsman.

With the league to be played between April 18 and June 1, that works out to $250,000 a week, a little more than Gerrard makes. But while Huyton's finest pays off his mortgage by strutting his stuff against the best teams in the world, all Dhoni needs to do is turn out in a competition that comprises eight versions of the Harlem Globetrotters. As long as he keeps wicket for 20 overs and manages half a dozen cameos over the 14-game season, those paying the bills will be more than happy.

And despite insinuations from Lalit Modi, the brain behind the enterprise, that Australian players would be a less attractive option in the wake of the Sydney controversy, the Hyderabad franchise owned by the Deccan Chronicle media group handed over $1.35 million for the allround talent of Andrew Symonds. Shane Warne, the marquee bowler of our age, went to Jaipur for just $450,000 - chump change in comparison.

The biggest ripple though was created by the fact that Sachin Tendulkar was no longer first among equals. With his icon status, Tendulkar will earn 15 percent more than his highest-paid team-mate. In the Mumbai team, that happens to be Sanath Jayasuriya ($975,000), meaning that Tendulkar will take home only three-fourth of what Dhoni will.

Had he been more like another Chelsea football star, Tendulkar might have spat the dummy and threatened to go off to Barcelona...or Kolkata in this case. If you needed more proof that the times, they really are a changin', you got it from the fact that the likes of Glenn McGrath and Michael Hussey didn't even attract initial bids, and had to be sent to the reserve pool for last picks.

Just as strange was the logic employed by some of the teams. Much has been said and written about building a brand and creating an identity that will have the fans begging for more. Why then is Rohit Sharma, Mumbai's rising star, playing for Hyderabad? Why isn't Robin Uthappa representing his hometown of Bangalore and not Mumbai? Shouldn't Kolkata have ensured that Manoj Tiwary stayed there, instead of hauling his kitbag to Delhi?

All these moves merely reinforce the view that the IPL will be all about Globetrotters-like gimmickry. Test cricket is called that for a very good reason, while even the much-maligned one-day game can stretch a player's skill to breaking point in certain situations. Twenty20 though is just a response to the Kurt Cobain cry, "Here we are now, entertain us", and it's no coincidence that the slog-sweep over midwicket is its leitmotif.

Whether you're a fan or a sceptic, and both camps are heavily populated, the fact is that cricket's landscape has changed irrevocably. Champions League prices have been paid, and we can only hope that the resulting product rises above Sunday-league standard.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Comments

[Punit]

I am neither pessimistic nor optimistic about this competition, but the sums are rather ridiculous for an untested format. Football is the world's favourite sport and Europe has the best clubs, so the Champions' League is a sure-fire winner -- huge global audiences, established clubs (Juventus, Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Man Utd etc. etc.) -- it all justifies the money paid out because it generates that money. Will cricket do the same? Unlikely. Will it need to? Baseball is not popular globally - only the US, Japan and some other countries, but the 2 largest economies in the World make that viable. I suspect that the competition will be a lot of fun, will attract more people to the sport and will have a positive effect on cricket, but overall, the silly sums will be curbed because I just don't see how anyone can make that money back. It's a huge gesture and Indian sport needs to thrive, but I can't see it lasting in this form.

[charles]

KP - concerntrate on your own game at the moment mate. Because you are playing like a veggie.

[John T]

Is M S Dhoni the most valuable player in world T20 cricket? In the last week I've seen him twice in 50 over games; he's been good, but not outstanding. Will those who've paid such large sums for the players they perceive to be the cream of the world's T20 cricketers be hedging their bets (no adverse reflection on the good reputation of Indian bookmakers intended)in case the return on their investments is less than they hoped?

[Ann]

Circus is right. And of the most obscene kind. ---
"but to pocket it, he plays close to 60 games a season, many of them of bruising intensity. And with his all-action style, Gerrard usually ends up covering 12 to 13 kilometres of turf over the 90 minutes" --- Oh, my heart bleeds for the poor boy. Oh, where are the violins when you need them ... so WHAT? There are plenty of people who work this hard, in many different professions. To pay anyone this amount of money is quite literally insane - even to someone who actually benefits humanity, which these clowns do not.

[Wanderer]

Am I the only one who found this piece of journalism to be literally unreadable ? The dualist approach of intertwining cricket with football made for a difficult read. Keep it simple next time.

[Dan Patel]

Harlem Globetrotters is an apt way of describing this circus.

Why would an Englishman sitting in a pub in Manchester want watch a 20/20 game between Kolkata and Hyderabad being played by over hyped and over the top performers.

I as an Indian will for sure not be watching this charade.

Are the sponsers really hoping that they will reap their millions by selling edorsements and TV rights just in India?

[Oscar the Grouch]

KP - Symonds first stated his deep concerns about touring Pakistan in November last year and has been consistent since then about not going, so your conclusion about him linking his position on touring Pakistan and his eventual price is simply wrong in fact. He has consistently held that position through the whole 'monkeygate' business when he was being publicly flayed by certain commentators in the Indian (and some in the Australian) press and when surely his future for any position in the IPL would have tenuous at best.

His 'base price' was good but not exceptional - ($250k) so he would have to have been some sort of master tactician to believe that his position re the Pakistand visit could have so dramatically improved his bid price - some of the other players with free itineraries and cult status did not attract anything like that money, while others with major national committments achieved very good prices.

Auctions can always get a little crazy but it's market forces at work - he has been considered one of the most valuable short-form game players for some time now, so perhaps it's his perceived value rather than any manipulative skills he might be considered to have that has resulted in this figure?

[joe shah]

Hey folks, all this has done is confirm the fact that if you take the 'K' out of monkey, you get left with MONEY...........he he he.

[KP]

I think this IPL is a load of rubbish, good comments from Dileep on why state players are playing for different state teams and not their normal teams - where is the passion in this, who do you support. Its all about money, take Symonds for example - he has stated security concerns for not touring Pakistan, but without the $1.35m fee from the IPL do you think he woudl have said no to playing, why are teams not so concerned about touring Pakistan - even Ponting is saying that Symonds may be in breach of his contract. I have huge respect for the English players who have not been tempted by the big $$$$$ and are continung their normal schedule.

[Jack]

Davd Hussey can bowl Steve. Ricky can only bat.

That is the difference. All rounders are worth twice as much.

Ponting is on the nose due to the 2nd test.

[Steve]

I wonder if someone in the IPL is going to get a slap on the wrist over this:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/cricket/david-hussey-snapped-up-for-738000/2008/02/21/1203467192403.html

I know David Hussey is a great first-class cricketer, but worth twice as much as Ricky Ponting???? Perhaps the fact that Mike Hussey is still not sold means that someone got the wrong man.....

[David - Perth]

HI i am not sure the interest in Cricket extends much further than commonwealth countries, (time will tell) even thou it is great to see players receiving rewards for hard work, i do feel cricket is still an elitist sport, without knowing the culture of India, is this sport really the sport of the people, or the rich and middle classes and time will tell if the global appeal of say Arsenal v Manu will extend to games played in the IPL......

[Steve]

I think its more Bollywood than Premier league.
I notice that players went for their 'star" or "controversial" quality, rather than their class or form or long-term proven ability. Crowd drawers and excitement level seem to go for higher rather than technically complete players. Not that Dhoni, Gilchrist Jayasuriya and Symonds aren't 'good" obviously, but, face it, two of them are past it, ( and Gilchrist knows it) and the other two are, well, exciting if they fire, but tend to fizzle also - hardly the reliability of McGrath or Hussey.

But it IS Twenty20, so the stellar players of our age, proven in the hard yards of Test cricket, are hardly going to rate higher than the Bollywood types (Symonds being the bad guy, of course).

[Jack]

It is just for 6 weeks Dileep not for 40 like the EPL

In soccer playing for your country is a sideshow to playing for your club.

In cricket it is exactly the opposite.

The IPL is still a sideshow and will be over before you know it and it iwill be back to normal programing.

[Vikram Patel]

I think the analogy with Premier League football, by Dilip, is misplaced - perhaps only because Doosra happens to appear in the English news paper. A more apt analogy of the "Auction" is with the American sports system ( for example baseball or football) where the " drafting of players" is common, irrespective of where they come from and they do represent the city team.

Anyway I think this is an excellent innovation and economically sound way to judge a persons probable contributions.

[Sujay]

The whole affair is quite depressing, Dileep, I share your pessimism. This weighing of players in terms of money is probably the only thing that makes ranking batsmen linearly by their batting averages seem civilized. Reminds me a bit of card-collector games. I guess this is a new entry.

Despite all the business talk and the amount of revenue IPL might generate, I cannot help thinking that it is a bit sick, the amount of money that is shelled out to the players for what they do. Especially in India.