I'm writing this while on vacation...taking time off while waiting for the cab to come in and take me to the Dharmashala cricket stadium. So the love for the game has not been lost yet but....(apologies for the rambling tone and some lack of structure to the whole post)
I have always maintained T-20 is a great format. In fact, Max Cricket (Crowe's invention) is better. The problem is with the IPL - the auctions, the owners, the BCCI, the brazenness of everyone involved - would you have a Rajiv Shukla and Srinivasan strut around your house, controlling things? That's the feeling I got when these people went about systematically desecrating my favourite pastime/way of life. What was disgusting was to see the likes of SRT,SCG,RD,Kumble not raise a voice against this - if your regular fan felt this to be sacrilegious, surely, the doyens who helped Indian cricket come out so strongly after 2000, should have felt worse but not a single voice of dissent. Journalists/players like Gavaskar and Shastri preferred to Board the gravy train and consistently parroted the 'We Indians got bullied like this when we were playing, so everything is justified now'. The likes of Bhogle who kept putting up this 'I'm just fascinated with the game and I haven't heard or seen any wrongdoing myself and if there is any, it should get cleaned up' clearly didn't do justice to their responsibilities as a journalist. The new markets which got opened up by the IPL - children, families could have really changed the game for good. If they continue to support the IPL in spite of seeing all this, it will be a sad day for Indian society because that would mean we have accepted that there is lot of wrong/bad but as long as we are enjoying it, we are ok with it. Having said all this, should we ignore all the good that the tournament has done - especially the money for the cricketers outside the top 20 players? It has meant that sport can be seen as a career in India. That's huge for sport in general. What next? Change the format of the tournament - don't make it a 40 day program. Make it like the EPL/La Liga/Serie A - an 8 month league with matches over the weekends only, have teams buy players but not auction them, have windows for 3 Test series every year, let the owners form publicly listed companies, bring the owners under SEBI rules, get a proper regulator who is NOT related to the Board - this will ensure the clubs have a loyal fan base (meaning more revenue from merchandise and other business activities around sports teams), transparency, there wont be an overdose of the game and even the Test Match will survive. I'm not suggesting the football world is corruption-free but the IPL system is built for the corrupt to thrive. There was only one voice of dissent after the first round of controversies under Lalit Modi came out - he admitted that he didn't do enough and resigned from the council. Some of his aura did wear off for me after the hunting case. But he was, is and will always remain a few leagues above the best. MAK Pataudi was made a member of the IPL Governing Council by Modi along with Shastri and Gavaskar but he was the only one to admit that he should have done his job better and resigned from the council. Indian Cricket is missing a character like him today. The only one who can come close in terms of honesty, strength of character is Dravid - please rise and take charge.
I have always maintained T-20 is a great format. In fact, Max Cricket (Crowe's invention) is better. The problem is with the IPL - the auctions, the owners, the BCCI, the brazenness of everyone involved - would you have a Rajiv Shukla and Srinivasan strut around your house, controlling things? That's the feeling I got when these people went about systematically desecrating my favourite pastime/way of life. What was disgusting was to see the likes of SRT,SCG,RD,Kumble not raise a voice against this - if your regular fan felt this to be sacrilegious, surely, the doyens who helped Indian cricket come out so strongly after 2000, should have felt worse but not a single voice of dissent. Journalists/players like Gavaskar and Shastri preferred to Board the gravy train and consistently parroted the 'We Indians got bullied like this when we were playing, so everything is justified now'. The likes of Bhogle who kept putting up this 'I'm just fascinated with the game and I haven't heard or seen any wrongdoing myself and if there is any, it should get cleaned up' clearly didn't do justice to their responsibilities as a journalist. The new markets which got opened up by the IPL - children, families could have really changed the game for good. If they continue to support the IPL in spite of seeing all this, it will be a sad day for Indian society because that would mean we have accepted that there is lot of wrong/bad but as long as we are enjoying it, we are ok with it. Having said all this, should we ignore all the good that the tournament has done - especially the money for the cricketers outside the top 20 players? It has meant that sport can be seen as a career in India. That's huge for sport in general. What next? Change the format of the tournament - don't make it a 40 day program. Make it like the EPL/La Liga/Serie A - an 8 month league with matches over the weekends only, have teams buy players but not auction them, have windows for 3 Test series every year, let the owners form publicly listed companies, bring the owners under SEBI rules, get a proper regulator who is NOT related to the Board - this will ensure the clubs have a loyal fan base (meaning more revenue from merchandise and other business activities around sports teams), transparency, there wont be an overdose of the game and even the Test Match will survive. I'm not suggesting the football world is corruption-free but the IPL system is built for the corrupt to thrive. There was only one voice of dissent after the first round of controversies under Lalit Modi came out - he admitted that he didn't do enough and resigned from the council. Some of his aura did wear off for me after the hunting case. But he was, is and will always remain a few leagues above the best. MAK Pataudi was made a member of the IPL Governing Council by Modi along with Shastri and Gavaskar but he was the only one to admit that he should have done his job better and resigned from the council. Indian Cricket is missing a character like him today. The only one who can come close in terms of honesty, strength of character is Dravid - please rise and take charge.
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