The first thing that came to my mind as i saw Brendon McCullum hitting the hapless bowlers around the ground in the IPL's opening encounter was "Its just not Cricket". The half-baked cricket on view was really depressing and a far cry from the subtleties offered by the purest forms of the game. The cricket was nothing short of third-rate garbage dished out to an ever hungry public adorned by bollywood stars with a garnishing of semi-nude cheerlgirls. The whole atmosphere smacked of commercialization and represented the BCCI's version of the fool's paradise.
The most depressing part of the IPL is that it has been espoused by those very people who are responsible for running the game in this country viz. BCCI. It would have been understandable if some private businessman like Subhash chandra had come up with it, arguing that he had commercial interests rather than the game at heart. But the BCCI which is responsible for promoting the game in this country has turned it into a thamasha by over-commercializing the game. Let's not be fooled into thinking that the BCCI did it out of love for the game, they did this as a knee-jerk reaction to offset Zee's ICL and also to make a quick buck in the process, caring a damn for the health of the game. If they really wanted to improve Indian cricket they should have improved the stadiums - which are among the worst in the world, improved the grassroots cricket, improved the training and coaching facilities for the senior team. Instead the board went ahead and trivialized the game by selling it off to private enterprises which do not have any interest in the game apart from making money and building brand equity.
I'm not against the Twenty20 format per se. It is a decent format to popularize the game in countries where the game does not have a presence. Its exposure in established markets will lead to devaluation of the purest for m of cricket viz. Test cricket. Test cricket is the soul of the game and it needs to be preserved not destroyed by ventures such as IPL. T20 is like a dessert and Test cricket is the main course , IPL attempts to feed the public with only the dessert and forgetting the main course. So thanks to our administrators T20 which should have been played in nascent markets like USA and Canada are being played in already established markets like India where the game does not need any more popularizing.
The whole argument that the IPL will improve Indian cricket is very hollow. Since when did T20 start producing good quality fast bowlers, great batsman and great spinners. If anything IPL will kill the bowlers out of existence, slip catching will become a thing of the past, and spinners a rarity. It needs good first-class cricket to produce good quality cricketers. T20 will produce only sloggers and defensive bowlers.
And lesser said about the cheergirls the better. The cricket field has some sanctity and it has to be maintained at any cost, and the sight of semi-nude cheergirls is not a bright idea to maintain sanctity. Its not the fault of the cheergirls, they are of course doing their job. The fault lies with the BCCI which has acted shamelessly by behaving like a bar owner in having the cheergirls dancing around in stadiums. is might not be a big deal for US-educated americanized people in the board like Lalit Modi but for Indians and the lovers of the game its blasphemous.
Finally, the worst thing about the IPL is actually the fact that it might actually succeed. The masses love it ( at least till now), the television loves it , the BCCI is raking in the moolah, the franchises are building brand equity, so there is a real danger that the it might succeed. But for the sake of the lovers of the game lets hope its a fantastic failure.
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