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Manchester will meet Mumbai in the finals of the
Champions league today at the Old Trafford Stadium. Considering the strengths
of the two teams, it’s going to be an absorbing contest on cards…
Well, this
could be an article you read in the early morning, may be two years from now.
Before you start questioning how Mumbai team can make it to Champions league
let me make things clear…am talking of the new ‘brand’ in the cricket world…IPL
We
are living in an era of competition. Before your competitor thinks of anything,
make sure that you conceptualise the pie and have most of it too. Probably this
was the primary reason why Subhash Chandra and ZEE announced the launch of ICL.
They wanted to catch the euphoria of Twenty20 and give a new dose of craze to
our cricket-crazy nation. However, they did not expect the response from IPL.
What
followed later is a pure demonstration of power and financial muscle. Using all
the contacts it has and the power it wields, BCCI not just came up with a
league of its own but also managed to keep ICL out of the radar by making it a
‘rebel league’. Though they are big bucks involved in both the leagues, it’s
currently IPL that’s ruling the roast. Again…the financial muscle at show.
IPL is
bringing the concept of franchises not seen in cricket till date. Add to that
the fact that the franchises are owned or run by corporate big wigs and glamour
stars and it makes IPL much more lucrative. Just imagine the kind of money a
player is making just for the 40-odd day tournament (roughly). These are the
kind of figures some of the players have never witnessed. Young guns like
Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan (he’s still young!!!), Robin Uthappa
are auctioned to big amounts. And of course, we have not yet looked into the
case of MS Dhoni.
The concept
of cities lining against each other is interesting. There are limits on the
number of international stars a team can poach (yeah, after animal poaching
this might become the most lucrative) and restrictions that local under-22
players must be selected. This resulted in a galaxy of stars lined up in the
auction…from test stars like Kallis to One-day stars like Gayle to T20
specialists like David Hussey. Some players got more than what they felt they
would fetch (Oram, David Hussey etc) while others had to eat a humble pie
(Shane Warne, Ponting etc). And at the end of it all, we are left with some
rare combinations (Kallis, Dravid, Jaffer playing in the same team that too in
a T20 tournament!!!)
Sceptics are against the
commercialisation of the game saying it will affect the game overall. Purists
have already voiced their concern on the growing popularity of the shortest and
the least technical form of all - T20. So, will the IPL survive? Only time will
tell but looking at the first week's collections IPL looks a Box Office Hit!
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Life @ K 
