For a few dollars more - Part Deux

Move over Clint Eastwood, the cricketers are here. And come mid-April, the Indian Premier League will ensure a fistful of dollars for everyone, including as much as $400,000 for Shane Warne. In a week where we observed the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash that decimated one of the greatest teams in the history of sport, the IPL is the ultimate proof of a game that has sold its soul to the highest bidders [$723 million for the eight teams].

This morning, it was Ricky Ponting's turn to make the IPL's head honchos happy. After doubts over the past week as to whether Cricket Australia's existing commitments would queer the pitch for those players that had signed up, Ponting came out and said: "I don't think Cricket Australia would be able to make any of their other sponsors global sponsors ... If they tried to do that I'm sure the players' association would have something to say about it. It would be a little bit unfair if that was the case."

The players' association, by the way, is that august body which is forever telling us that the international schedule is ridiculous. We agree. International cricket doesn't benefit in any way when names like Flintoff, Akhtar and Bond are forever crocked, and packed itineraries have certainly played a part in these men going missing.

So far, so good. What of the IPL then, a tournament shoehorned into an already heaving calendar? Unless you're in England or the Caribbean, the second half of April and May are off-season for everyone else, that precious time when you can pack away the kitbag and revitalise yourself for the coming season.

But when the IPL concept was announced, did you hear so much as a murmur of protest from the players' association? Any lengthy diatribe about burnout or players being beasts of burden [we no longer mention animal names after Sydney]? No, we didn't think so. When the contracts offered have enough noughts on them, the aching muscles and jaded minds recover miraculously.

At least World Series Cricket offered tremendously competitive games featuring some of the greatest cricketers of the time.

Greg Chappell still rates the 621 runs he made in the SuperTests against a fearsome attack in the Caribbean as among the best he ever made. Both Richards, Viv and Barry, have spoken of how intense it was.

By contrast, the IPL is a glorified Twenty20 exhibition.  I have yet to meet a player who thinks of it as a real test of skill or character. What it is is something to make the bank managers very happy. We don't mind, as long as you don't bother to peddle us that rubbish line about fatigue again.

Comments

[John]

Sorry Dileep but I think you are wrong. I well remember 1977 and the ACB disregarding one day cricket as unimportant and just a form of entertainment. They were only willing to schedule the occasional ODI as nothing could interfere with what was seen as a full season. Strong interest in the annual test series plus a strong Sheffield Shield with test players available for most games.
How wrong they were! And yet the CEO of CA is now mouthing identical statements. "20/20 is great entertainment and we love seeing the huge crowds, but CA thinks we already have a full schedule of great cricket and see no need to schedule any more than 1 or 2 games a season"
Wonderful. How will he think when the best available cricketers start "retiring" and sign up for the riches available. Already New Zealander Shane Bond has taken this option and I could name a great Australian 11 of players who have enjoyed few chances. In Australia if you aren't in the 12 you are basically nowhere and earn minor sums compared with those in the front line. Anyone offering $100k US would have a great chance of picking these excellent cricketers up leaving CA with no future, just as Mr. Packer did all those years ago. Once the current crop retired, or became uncontracted there'd be little left to replace them.
I don't know were all this will lead, but I do know that CA will miss the boat again, and that the IPL will probably be a great success that will revolutionise the game. Good luck to them.
I'm over 50 and love the concept.

[Dileep]

Think there won't be pressure to keep "slugging" sixes in T20? I don't think folk shelled out $723 million to give the players an easy ride.
Ultimately, the game is becoming more and more like English football. No one cares where the money comes from, or how it was made, as long as it keeps coming in. Sod the game and whatever it once stood for.

PS. I speak as an unashamedly xenophobic Liverpool fan who'd be rid of the Americans tomorrow if he could. What's the next step? Some half-wit businessman coming into the dressing room and telling the captain-coach how they can "slug" sixes. It's already happened with Abramovich-Mourinho and Benitez-Hicks.

[Al Rowe]

Dileep, I think that the pressure placed on players with so much cricket in one year is forcing them to 20/20.

[Phoenix]

Agree with the scheduling of practice matches though - IPL will ensure that practice matches virtually disappear. Unlike other sports cricket needs practise matches to acclimatise but with player loyalty firmly with the Franchise, it is unlikely that international tours will be able to accomadate practice matches. We may still see 4 test series but the one practice match may become zero. If only BCCI could have some kind of vision not even 20/20 (pun intended) just enough to see that they have been given a wonderful opportunity to mould the future of cricket. Knowing BCCI, Niranjan Shah, Ratnakar Shetty and the biggest morons of them all, Pawar - I doubt that they will rise to the challenge.

[Phoenix]

But Dileep, IPL is not going to compete with test cricket though. Consider this, with T20 becoming more and more popular, normal cricket fans find it preferable to odi romp. Test has its loyal supportors and always will. It is odi that will suffer as it is the form of the game that promises excitement - with IPL that claim will sound hollow. I think test matches will remain as they are and in fact I will even go as far to say that in the future international matches will pre-dominantly be test or t20s with odi's gradually receding in numbers. A normal cricket fan (someone who prefers momentory gratification rather than the subtle thrill that is tests) will always almost prefer a bunch of T20s as opposed to ODIs. Who will watch ODIs then - people like you and me will always watch tests!

[Dileep]

If that was the case, I'd be IPL's biggest supporter. But when the game's greedy administrators make the schedule, it's always Test cricket that pays a price. Why do you not have five Tests between India and Australia? Why play 12 ODIs at home and then have only one practice match before the most significant Test series in cricket (that's been India-Australia for the last decade)? To squeeze in more Twenty20, you'll merely see more crappy two-Test series that are over before the visiting team can even acclimatise. One-day cricket is the game's biggest paycheck, and no one's going to touch that. And all the Kolkata T-shirts in Toronto won't help Test cricket then.

[Phoenix]

Dileep - speaking as someone who worships test cricket, I do not think that IPL is a bad idea. What IPL will do and in a grand way is put an end to ridiculous one day tourneys which no one remembers. Can you tell me who won the Pepsi cup in Sharjah in 1996 or the finalists of the tri-series in Aust 2 years ago? The point is that IPL will not replace test cricket which will continue to be strong but will gradually replace pointless one day series. What would you rather watch, India taking on Sri Lanka in Kandy for a ODI or Mumbai Maulers v. Chennai Cheetahs with Warne bowling to Tendulkar and Ponting with Sangakara keeping and Symnonds prowling at point.
IPL will transform cricket into a popular sport in countries other than just India and introduce new audiences which would otherwise never watch test cricket. And and and let me tell you, I expect IPL to be to cricket what premiership is to Football. Expect Canadian cricket fans - to give an example - to wear Kolkata Reds shirts in the not so near future.