Today Feb 4th was an awful day for BCCI / IPL
with the withdrawal of Sahara India franchise from both the Pune franchise and
Indian team sponsorship on the day of the IPL 5 auction.
The collapse of the Kochi & Pune franchises, the cricket
TV rights debacle with Nimbus and the waning form of the Indian cricket team
overseas, BCCI is looking at both severe reverses in financial and cricketing
fronts.
Just a year back, India winning the ODI world cup and
humongous amounts which Kochi and Pune franchises paid for the slice of the IPL
action.
Need to phase out the
legends
Indians have always been in awe of their cricketing Gods –
they can never imagine them to age and retire on time. It is always a case, we
ensure they overstay their welcome and give very few chances to blood new
youngsters. It happens when it is too late.
Cricket Australia has been quite ruthless to cut legends
down to size when needed, be it Ian Healy, Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh.
Over all fitness /
intent
Forget the slow moving gentlemen like VVS Laxman and Rahul
Dravid, younger players like Zaheer Khan and Virendra Sehwag seem so tired and
bored to take to the field.
Easy IPL money
Ravindra Jadeja picking up 2 million $ is crazy for playing
a domestic T-20 league to bowl 4 overs and slog the bat. The IPL is an unlikely
villain which incentivizes slam bang cricket and further de-incentivize classic
test cricketers on the lines of Wasim Jaffer or Akash Chopra.
DRS obstinacy
One bad experience in Sri Lanka with the DRS, Indian cricket
is ready to block DRS thus ensuring cricket games are no longer played in the
same playing conditions. The chances of human error can be minimized but never
eliminated. If cricket boards had played similar hard ball in the early 90’s we
would never had the third umpire.
Neglect of other domestic
tournaments
Apart from IPL, the older domestic tournaments like Ranji
Trophy, Duleep Trophy are not getting crowds and even the performances in these
games do not get the same visibility of an IPL.
We are creating a generation of T-20 focused cricketers ignoring
the other formats of cricket.
Overpriced business
models
SET MAX, Neo and the IPL franchises have definitely
over-invested and paid huge amounts, the number of meaningless games and waning
interests in both cricket grounds and dropping TRPs is clear that the game is
going to see tougher times ahead.
Is there Hope ? I don’t
think so
Usually I conclude my posts on an optimistic note but I don’t
see one here, a game which is run by business men and active politicians who
have no love for the game, a cricket coach and selection committee who cannot take
tough calls, this are only going to more bleak. I don’t see any conviction in the
cricket administrators to make a change.
Remember Sachin Tendulkar will retire soon one day, it is
going to take some great magic to get the average Indian fan turn on his TV set
for 5 am Test match versus Australia or buy a ticket for an IPL match.
Sahara has seen the storm coming and there is trouble in paradise.
