So it took the materialization of IPL for people to realize that there is huge money in cricket. But the funny part is that the high-profile player auction has been seen as a dirty money-game so much so that the main reaction to the event has been from quarters in the country who are crying foul over the clout of the haves and talking about disparities in the country. I was surprised to see Medha Patkar talking in a news programme which focussed on the IPL and the big money on CNN-IBN. I guess she said something to the effect that the display of money would depress people who live in poverty. And Even the Shiv Sena supremo had something to say against the overt commercialization of cricket. Is it really that 'dirty' to see so much money poured into IPL? The answer from my side is an emphatic No.Firstly, people who are reacting so cynically do not understand the strength of sports in attracting big money. They should have a look at how much moolah there is in football, specially in the UK which probably has the most commercialized football league - the English Premier League. The biggest transfer that happened for this season was that of Fernando Torres to Liverpool at a whopping $50million or so - effectively he would get a payment of close to $200,000 a week. That would make it close to 10million a year. And what is the highest grossing Mahendra Singh Dhone getting paid? A mere $1.5 million and that too for a 3 year contract. Now after reading that tell me if you still thinking that it's a dirty money game or beginning to wonder if cricketers could be under-paid.
Whichever way you look at it, the fact of the matter is that it's all about market forces controlling the stakes. It's about where the game is being played and what value the player would bring to the owning teams. India happens to be a cricket crazy nation and at the same time, the second fastest growing big economy with a huge consumer base. The maximum saleability of cricket among the cricket playing nations is in India. So in such a scenario, if the BCCI thinks that cricket could do a football in terms of entertainability and comes up with the IPL it's nothing but profit maximization - the basis of any business. Business heads in India readily saw that as a oppurtunity to cash-in and hence all this so called frenzy for buying players.
I guess the high profile fashion in which the bidding was carried out for capturing players' services acted as a trigger for people to react to the whole event the way they have. I have to say it's more or less the same way that players are brought by football clubs. But really these guys seriously need to do a rethink about what they are objecting to. What is their problem? Display of big money?
But tell me if an Ishanth Sharma, who's only playing only his first away tour get a few crores, why should anybody think that the money he's making is dirty? Isn't it absolutely amazing to see talent getting rewarded. Wouldn't that be an added inspiration for youngsters to give it a real go in trying to make a career out of cricket? In a country of a billion, where the youth invariably start off playing cricket in their backyard and aspire to play at the highest level, wouldn't this scenario prevent parents from discouraging their children from taking cricket too seriously.
Actually if you look at it, these guys have to be happy that merit (read talent) can make one rich - no matter where a player comes from. And what better way to see wealth distribution in a country that is plagued by huge disparities in income distribution.
To look at the cricketing part of the whole saga, you can't quite say that the quality of cricket could take a hit. Sports world-wide change due to commercial reasons and more often than not, these changes only auger well for the quality of the sport in question. Look at the English Premier League, with more influx of money, the quality has gone up so high that the Champions League is seeing a increasing domination of the English clubs (3 of the 4 semifinalists last year were English). Look at women's tennis, has increased glamourisation done anything bad? No, instead women's tennis has gotten intensely competitive and full of power! It's going to be the same with cricket too. More money will mean more pressure on teams to win. When there is pressure to perform, only the best will be picked to play and so quality will always get the precedence. May be ICL, even if it hasn't been that successful, needs some patting on the back for coming up with idea of club culture in modern cricket. At the end of the day it's we the spectators who're going to be entertained watching the best play in our backyards. So what is there to be worried about? Sit back and enjoy the sixes!
