The euphoria generated over the formation of India Premier League (IPL) in 2008 as an agency that would help promote the healthy cricket traditions in India is almost on the wane in the middle of 2012 especially in view of the fact that the IPL has emerged as India Problem League.
Within a short span of its existence, the IPL has traversed a roller coaster of Cash, Cricket and Controversies. It has become a fizzy cocktail of Bollywood sirens and superstars, business magnates and beautiful women, airline tycoons, glitterati and chatteratti, razzmatazz entertainment topped by skimpily clad cheerleaders, after-match parties et al.
During the second half of May this year, the IPL hogged media limelight not for delivering quality cricket but for generating ugly controversies. This period characterized as its fifth season kicked up a storm a day of ugly charges and counter charges. First a sting operation on spot-fixing leading to suspension of five players, followed by a scuffle between Shah Rukh Khan and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) officials resulting in him being banned from Wankhede Stadium for 5 years culminating in an Australian Royal Challengers Bangalore player’s arrest for molestation.
Aggressive commercialization of cricket has transformed froma gentleman’s sport to the Great Indian Bazaar of Indian cricket, of big bucks, million dollar boys, heavy betting and match fixing; a gambling game of industrialists and a shameless, obscene demonstration of money-power. It has become symbolic of a mammoth corporate conglomerate which lacks transparency and is all about wielding power and money, thereby generating excitement of a different kind.
It has been turned into a casino type of gambling wherein millions are made and lost by a spin of the ball. There is no exaggeration in calling it a full-fledged industry and trade with a turn-over running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Added to this whisper of money laundering is foreign exchange violation, D company money, which exposes cricket’s filthy underbelly.
Such a sordid state of affairs pervading cric
ket has given rise to various questions like – is this what cricket is all about? Is the IPL a product of this age and time, where money becomes the driving force of the sixes, bumper, silly mid-off, first slip, LBW, googly et al. Will it only create a super-elite category of overpaid, arrogant superstars at the cost of domestic cricket? Will the new cricket corporate czars have any emotional attachment to the sport?
There have emerged serious questions about the way the IPL has progressively become a heady cocktail of sex, sleaze and moolah. The recent developments obtaining in the IPL are indeed a cause for concern, particularly, as they come close on the heels of the latest revelations about match/spot fixing in the league. While the latter hints at the ethical deficit that may have stayed unattended all this while.
There is, thus, a crying need to tame the ever increasing distractions with an alacrity and heavy hand at once. Any pussyfooting on this count may cause an irretrievable damage and in the process endanger both the league and T-20 format. In this context, therefore, the action initiated by the BCCI at the emergence of the first whiff of the match fixing is laudatory.
However, initiation of probes into the allegations of wrongdoings to uncover the truth, and base any possible punitive actions on the truth so discovered, has always been a big picture prescription for the powers that be in this country. They have chosen to take this position within hours of an incident taking place.
Mostly, as we have come to discover now, this prescription has been a red herring aimed at distracting the people.
No wonder, the BCCI has done the expected. Therefore, the mere act of ordering of probe in the instant case does not suffice, or even weigh much, so long as a series of steps are not simultaneously rolled out, betraying the much needed desperation on the part of the BCCI to bring an appropriate closure in the matter.
In the past, inquests into match fixing have meandered along and been unseemly rounded off with the middle of the road conclusions benefiting both the protagonists and antagonists. There have neither been severe judicial indictments nor punitive pronouncements of the kind seen recently in England against the ‘guilty’ Pakistani players.
Undeniably, today the IPL underscores that cricket has less to do with sport and turned into a game of power and money. The decline of standards in sports is in direct proportion to the increase in the players’ affluence. When a game is no longer a game but a commercial deal, why crib against those who handle one piece of business and take steps to ensure its gains. Plainly, a sport becomes corrupt when money is involved.
Just imagine the nine franchisees of the IPL forked out combined Rs 8000-plus crore first to buy the team franchises. Then, they spent a whopping Rs.200 crore on purchasing players at the auction. Before this, the telecast rights were sold for a huge Rs.3,672 crore for 10 years and the title sponsorship for another Rs 200 crore for a five-year period.
The kitty of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is virtually the same as the budget allocation of a Union Ministry. Given the fact that cricket is a national past-time no other sport invites sponsorships, telecasting rights and money as much as cricket does. More scandalous is that the Government for inexplicable reasons has given IPL tax exemption. The IPL brand in less than three years is estimated today at a whopping $4.13 billion.
Understandably, everything is not above board with the IPL. It has become a byword for cronyism and big money. At its heart it is about making money, not sporting excellence. It is incumbent on the fat political cats in the exclusive cozy, closed Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI) club to clear the air in the next IPL governing council meeting.
Correctives need to be put in place urgently before the IPL and the BCCI’s credibility is ruined. This would go a long way in making the operations of the IPL transparent. If the BCCI drags its feet, the Government must inquire into the financial dealings of the IPL. Undoubtedly, the latest episodes go much beyond cricket. Notwithstanding, falling TRP ratings, advertisers drifting to more ‘lucrative’ programmes topped by flagging spectators.
It is high time to stem the rot and set our cricket house in order. Rescuing the gentleman’s game from the grip of politicians, stars and businessmen, deceit and money will not only be an uphill task but a lot of sweat and tears. One should remember that a sport is by necessity a public activity, one that must be transparently conducted and be accountable. There is dire need of restoring cricket’s credibility and this task is better facilitated by the public and game fans in tandem with each other.
