How IPL will hit Test Cricket (Part 1 of 2)

Ace shooter and India’s 1st Olympic individual gold medalist, Ahbinav Bindra calls the IPL – “an over hyped cricket tournament”. I would call it, “the most over hyped circus ever - in a cricketing disguise”.

I hold the strong view that the IPL will cause damage to the real cricket - test cricket. In fact, it has already started to do so. Let me explain how…

1. Corporatisation of cricket

IPL is changing the way teams are oriented. From a tradition of national teams and national cricketing boards, IPL teams are owned by franchisees. This model has been adopted from football, where professional footballers are contracted to play for professional clubs. This is also the model followed by American leagues.

Many would argue that corporatisation will bring in more professionalism into cricket, and benefit the Indian economy as well. However, we must realize that unlike football or the American sports, cricket is a sport played in multiple formats.

We have the original test cricket for the purists and then the ODI and T20 formats for the fans who do not necessarily understand the intricacies of cricket, but follow it for the entertainment value. The shorter versions obviously attract a larger and younger viewer base, thus making them more attractive to corporate sponsors, i.e. they are more ‘marketable properties’.

Let’s not be under any illusion - Corporates are not interested in developing cricket; they just want to make money. If corporates had it their way, professional cricketers would be playing for 365 days a year. And of course, we will never see corporates line up to buy franchisees for a world test championship! Corporates do not want the slow boring form of test cricket; they want the bang-bang of 20-20.

2. IPL will overlap with international schedules

Over the years, we are seeing more and more international cricket being played. An international team plays around 80-100 days of cricket every year. These days, it is very rare for a team to not have any fixture for even a month at a stretch. The international cricket calendar was already jam-packed. And to top it off, we now have the IPL.

The IPL demands at least 5-6 weeks from international players. Obviously, for the first 2 seasons, many foreign players could not participate for the entire tournament; they had to return to national duties. But all national boards are not that financially strong to compel their players to give priority to representing their country over their franchise.

The Sri Lankan tour to England has been the first casualty. The board (shamefully) had to bow down to their players’ demands and opt out of the scheduled England tour. England had to then schedule a series with the West Indies, to salvage their home season.

This is the first instance where the IPL circus has hit the international cricket schedule. If IPL gets stronger, there will be even more instances of cricket tours getting cancelled. Needless to say, India will not have any cricket matches for the 6 weeks of IPL.

More on this in part 2...