It is that time of the year when we are told to step aside, take a deep breath and think and breathe nothing else but watch the bat shred the leather ball into smithereens.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is upon us, the cricket world is going breathless and there is a serious danger of expert voices going hoarse, given the amount of shouting and screaming they are indulging in to promote the brand. For around two months, India is supposed to come to a standstill, and marvel at having created a fantasy league and a format that should, sooner than later, be the yardstick of sporting “excellence”.
Therefore it comes as a surprise that the International Cricket Council (ICC) met in Kolkata and deliberated upon matters other than paying glowing tributes to the IPL and its contribution to “improving” not only the standard of the game but also the financial health of all players, including the marginalized ones. They may not have talked of the IPL but not surprisingly, the T20 format still hogged the headlines. The bone of contention is the scrapping of the Champions Trophy and replacing it in 2021 with the T20 World Cup. No one disagrees that the Champions Trophy has outlived its utility, but should the one which was scheduled to be hosted by India be replaced with a T20 World Cup?
One would have imagined that India, the land of T20’s most famous by-product, the IPL, would jump at this proposal. But, no, the richest board in the world, which won’t mind the IPL subsuming all other cricketing identities under its larger protective umbrella, is not happy with this decision. Their contention is that not hosting the Champions Trophy will result in huge financial losses, hence they are against this decision.
Logic would suggest that it would be far more profitable to host a T20 World Cup than a 50-over tournament which has no relevance or context, like many other tournaments being played around. Then why is India crying foul? The answer could lie in the IPL itself. Why would India want a rival to IPL being played in its own country, which would result in redistribution of advertising money and a loss to the host broadcaster as well. And then there is the danger of IPL being pitted against the World Cup itself, which could affect IPL’s popularity and ratings. These are the ponderable that the Indian board has to address and that could very well be one of the reasons for it not wanting to host the World Cup of a format which is threatening all other forms of the game. In any other circumstance, this unscheduled thrusting of the World Cup on India would have been most welcome but not in this case. India sees IPL as being even more important than the World Cup, which it may well be, given its reach, the money it earns for itself and the players.
It is also unlikely that the T20 World Cup will attract full houses in matches where India is not playing, like the IPL does, regardless of which teams are playing. No other cricket tournament, including the World Cup, attracts such large number of spectators, making IPL a unique sports tournament in the world.
That is its strength, which the BCCI and the broadcasters can leverage in the near future. Whether they use this strength to improve the health of the game worldwide or as a blackmailing instrument to consume all other formats will be interesting to watch.