I have been following Man United for sometime now. But the "cultured" following started 4 seasons ago when they were vying to regain the Premier League title from the grasps of Chelsea with a relatively young team. As things panned out, they have been winning title after title since that season and in the process have added me into their growing list of loyal followers (Red Devils!). Thanks to ESPNStar (Have you realized they also seem to have switched loyalties, from cricket to football!), I have been able to watch pretty much all of their games these past few seasons. With time I have to confess I have turned into a real football fanatic. I hate to miss a minute of Man United's games - it doesn't matter whether United are playing one of the big teams or some relegation-fearing side (visit my Man United blog) What more, I sometimes think it's OK to miss a Sachin ton for watching Rooney score a goal. Something (for somebody who's watched most of Sachin's tons) I would have considered an absolute blasphemy few years ago!
Without doubt, Man United's exploits have converted me into a die-hard football fan(atic!). Add to that the emergence of English Premier League as the best in the last few seasons (Please don't tell me it's La Liga now. Don't buy it) and for that matter the perennial appeal of the beautiful game, I have been totally taken into football. It's not as if I stopped watching cricket in the meanwhile. I still very much do. But I am getting more and more selective about it. A Sachin innings here and a Sehwag innings still keep my cricketing side earnest. But nobody would disagree with me if I said that cricket is losing big time of late. No! No! It's not the money it is losing or the following. But it's the purity. Something that can be best summed up using the term "Over-commercialization". And IPL, cricket's latest avataar, is the embodiment of commercialized cricket at it's best (or worst?). IPL is celebrating it's 3rd season now but I am finding it hard to jump into its bandwagon. Perhaps I am not just one of the few who can't bite into it.
This blog can run into pages if I try to discuss everything about commercialized cricket and the consequent ills. So, let me limit myself to just one thing - the reasons why the IPL induced club culture isn't appealing to me:
First of all the very idea of IPL has been a clear attempt to replicate the huge success of the football leagues such as the English Premier League. Cricket to India is what football is to England. The so called franchises are supposed to be equivalent of clubs but they aren't per se. Clubs are supposed to have something called history. They need to have a structure and need to be built from the grass root levels. Name any big football club in the world and they will have something called history. They were all small and humble clubs started by football enthusiasts for the love of playing the 'beautiful game' (for example Man United was started by workers in the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot in the late nineteenth century. See here) The IPL franchises have been a conglomeration of businessmen to cash-in on the highly lucrative brand called cricket in India. They have actually created teams out of nothing (apart from money I mean!). Mind you, cricket has had similar roots and hence similar growth in India like football has had in England. There are hundreds of clubs playing in various state divisions across the country. Pretty much all of them have their own unique history and identity. Except that not many are known to laymen specially to people who don't follow local cricket. In a country where the prestigious Ranji finals are played in front of empty stands, that isn't the most shocking thing! People say we as a country are passionate about cricket. I suggest a correction - We are only passionate about watching the national team play! The IPL franchises could perhaps have bought into the biggest clubs in each region and turned them into their teams. But then that would have been a very crude way of going about the business of making money, I suppose!
I don't have an issue with 20-20 cricket being made the official version for IPL. The reduction of time was something that was a necessity for popularizing cricket anyway. And I don't think it's going to kill the game of cricket either. Even if a purist argues it might take away the test cricketers out of our youngsters, I feel it's only going to provide an addede challenge to modern day cricketers in terms of adaptability to different forms. My issues are the various changes the IPL organizers try to bring-in in the name of making the game interesting. The strategy break is one thing I think has been brought in for pure commercial reasons. Last year they tried the long 10-15 break. This time they've introduced mini breaks in between. It's just laughable. Everybody knows cricket isn't a game where all the players are on the field at the same time, specially for the batting team. Time-outs are an absolute necessity in certain sports like basketball. But not cricket. If the batsmen need a message to be provided, you can always send your 12th man with the drinks. That's always been allowed! Even the bowling side needs just the bowlers and captain to huddle, if at all they need to strategise. The fact is these strategy breaks are just a way to sneak in more commercials during the telecast. As if there was a lack of time to show ads between overs! The recent trend of showing ads when a bowler is taking a long run-up is disgusting to say the least. I guess, IPL will in future encourage spin bowlers to take longer run-ups. Will help them bowl deceptive slower deliveries, surely! These guys need to watch football telecasts to understand how the sanctity of game is protected without resorting to unnecessary commercials. You will never see a commercial between the opening and final whistle of a Half. Not even when there is a horrible injury and a player needs 5 minutes to be stretchered off!
Commercials apart, the organizers have been coming up with ingenious ways to help their sponsors rake in more attention for their brands. I have been fed up of hearing things like "Citi moment of success", "DLF maximum", "xyz strategy break", "abc kamaal catch", blah blah blah. Give me a break people! How much more do you want to commercialize the game and kill it's integrity. I am surprised seasoned cricketers and commentators have no issues uttering them again and again. Sometimes I seem to enjoy watching cricket with the mute ON!
How many times do you get to see Preity Zinta during a game involving the Kings XI Punjab? 10? 15? 20? Nobody would have an issue with seeing her pretty face but it invariably gets me confused into thinking she could be the team manager! I can understand the owners being concerned about their teams. But why can't IPL say No to teams having their owners in the dug-out? One of those things that tells me IPL is never going to be as professional as let's say the Champions League football.
I know IPL is being sold on the theme of cricket marrying entertainment. The cheerleaders, the DJ stuff, having movie stars come over and watch the games, anchors with bollywood credentials and so on. But really, if you are a purist like I am, all of this looks very messy! Just distractions, if anything.
I've heard so many say that IPL is overcooking it. Too much cricket crammed into too short a period and what have you, an overdose! The English premier league has 38 games played over a season spanning 10 months. With football being essentially a 2 hour affair and a highly demanding physical game, even that is known to tire players and lead to injuries specially when teams play twice a week. What about IPL? We have teams playing 15+ games in a month's window. Even if cricket isn't as exacting as football, isn't it a clear reflection of teams being forced to play in the shortest time possible. Alright! I know the whole organization thing needs to be centralized, like having ICC have a control over the whole cricketing calendar including IPL. But let me tell you, it's going to take ages before such a thing can happen. Until then this overkill is only going to reflect badly on the whole institution called cricket.
Another thing about overkill. After the last IPL, which was played in SA, India were one of the favourites to lift the T20 World Cup. Yet, our performance was so poor we couldn't muster a semi-final spot. I definitely think the overdose of cricket showed on our cricketers in the form of tiredness (I can't remember if we were greatly hit by injuries) and importantly the lack of desire.
Looking at the length this blog has gotten and still feeling I haven't covered everything I had to write, I feel there are too many things about IPL I don't enjoy. That doesn't mean it's a total mayhem. IPL certainly provides a lot of entertainment in the form of big hits, some great innings (like the one Yousuf Pathan played the other day) and real nail-biting finishes. It's good that many people go out to watch cricket matches that last only a few hours and support their local teams. It's also great to see so many youngsters given chances to learn and shine playing with the big names in cricket. But all the other things I have spoken about above definitely are making fans like me worried, if not anxious about the future of cricket. And I don't feel very optimistic things are going to change very rapidly!
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