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

To justify my last post, we witness the case of Chris Gayle – the West Indies cricket captain. As if going straight from T20 to test match cricket wasn’t bad enough, the Calypso King chose to play one more game for his IPL team which cannot win even if the match was fixed for them. He joined his team 2 days prior to the 1st test match, starting today. With the WI batting failing miserably in the tour games, the team badly needed their skipper but he's more interested in earning the big bucks. This is only the beginning of the damage that IPL will do.

3. A window for IPL, another window for Champions League…
There have already been some requests for a window in the international cricket schedule for the IPL. Not surprisingly, these requests (or demands) have come from the IPL promoters themselves.

These demands may seem to be very ambitious. But today, money rules the world, and cricket is no different. Given its humungous financial strength, the BCCI enjoys most of the power and clout. Comparatively, ICC and most of the cricket boards are extremely weak, and often have to give in to the atrocious demands of BCCI.

If the IPL circus continues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to bully ICC into creating a separate window for the IPL. That will be the proverbial ‘inch’. The goons will then want a window for the ‘Champions League’. Who knows what could happen after that!

4. Injuries, injuries and more injuries
Many cricket fans may not know this, but Mathew Hayden played through IPL 2008 with a niggling ankle injury. He did not have a great 1st season, and the ankle did not get the rest needed. Hayden had to play through a tough international schedule without any rest. He then lost his form and runs dried up. The pressure on him increased and the selectors took him to the brink. He had no option but to end his Australia career. This is the first instance of IPL causing a (great) cricketer to relinquish national duties, there will be many more.

This year Jacques Kallis is playing with a thumb injury. And then there is the curious case of Dwayne Bravo. Apparently, he is not fit enough to play test matches, but somehow, ODIs and T20s are fine. So he’s raking in the moolah while West Indies is represented by some mediocre newcomers.

I have not even touched upon the most infamous injury story of the year. The story of Andrew Flintoff, who re-injured his knee and had to go in for surgery! He will miss the West Indies series, and has been left out for the T20 World Cup as well. The papers in England are full of debates and hate-columns. Unfortunately the Indian media lacks people of integrity and/or courage to come out with the facts and some sincere analysis of the state of affairs.

The injury epidemic has now hit the Indian cricketers as well. Our bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan has hurt his left shoulder. Sehwag and Yuvraj have split webbings. Captain cool Dhoni has a back problem and a finger injury. Being the only keeper selected for the T20 WC, this injury could have serious repercussions.

All in all, there is nothing positive (for cricket) coming out of the IPL circus. If anyone feels the IPL has introduced anything positive to the sport, I’d love to have a debate.