SPOIL sport

The IPL changed the way cricket is played and enjoyed, but has now itself become a power game, writes M. S. Unnikrishnan

Cricket was just a sport, and crores were mind-boggling sums, till the Indian Premier League (IPL) hit the scene like a tornado to change the rules of the game forever.

Now, the IPL is a marquee event, known the world over, which threatens to overtake the National Basketball League as the biggest club league in the world. And crores have become mere numbers.

The IPL has become a heady mix of sports, cash, glamour and politics, and those with clout and money want to have a share in the pie. The IPL ensures instant publicity, glamour and a never-before-opportunity to rub shoulders with the high and mighty.

Lalit Modi, a young business wizard, who conceived and executed the IPL when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was looking to counter the fledgling Indian Cricket League (ICL), floated by Kapil Dev in association with Subhash Chandra of Zee TV, has created a great success out of an idea which many thought would not work in the Indian context with city-specific club teams, having strange names, competing for honours.

The IPL not only stifled the ICL and pushed it out of business, but also proved to be a goldmine for the BCCI.

Imagine, the BCCI was the last man standing, opposing the Twenty20 version of cricket, terming it as a ‘tamasha’ version of the hallowed game when the International Cricket Council (ICC) accepted the mini version in its fold, and decided to hold the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. The BCCI joined the bandwagon only when the ICC read out the riot act, asking the Indian body to fall in line, else face the consequences.

And see what height the format has taken Indian cricket to, after M. S. Dhoni's boys lifted the Twenty20 World Cup!

But Modi's baby has now grown into a Frankenstein, which threatens to devour the man himself. Modi perhaps did not envisage that within three years, the IPL would pan out to be a gargantuan Rs 18,000-crore business with hundreds of players from India and abroad benefiting in the bargain. Marginal players, who would have otherwise struggled to get a place in a state Ranji team, are now celebrities, lolling in the goodies of life, which they could never ever have imagined they would one day enjoy.

Modi's Twitter folly of revealing the names of the stakeholders of Kochi franchisee Rendezvous Sports Ltd and his personal attacks on his once close friend, former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, snowballed into a major controversy that, to some extent, boomeranged.

The real stakeholders of some of the IPL franchisees, who preferred to project glamour dolls and filmstars as their fronts while remaining the backroom boys, now will have to come clean, as the income tax and enforcement sleuths are on the Modi and IPL trail to unravel the mystery behind some of the IPL franchisee stakeholders.

Whether they hail from Mauritius or Timbuktu, the coasts of Kerala or Gujarat, Modi will have to twitter the truth in front of not only the taxmen, but also the BCCI core group. When the IPL was launched in 2008, there was no sure guarantee that the franchisees, who invested crores, would ever regain their money. It could have been a blind man's bluff, but some of them not only made profits in the first year itself, but also saw enormous business`A0possibilities in the future editions to rake in th moolah.`A0

This unbounded clout of the IPL perhaps encouraged Modi to add two more teams to the existing pool of eight, though it would mean more matches, more venues and mind-boggling logistics to hold the event. But the shrewd businessman in Modi also calculated that some stakes in the two new franchisees for himself, or his near and dear ones, would do no harm to his reputation. But his calculations went awry as rank outsiders, Rendezvous Sports Ltd consortium, walked away with the Kochi franchise for a whopping Rs 1533 crore, while Sahara Adventure Sports played it safe to jack up their bid to such an astronomical level that none could have beaten them to the Rs 1702 crore, for which they snapped up the Pune franchise.

Sahara were once bitten twice shy as they had been beaten in the bid stakes when the IPL was launched in 2008.

Those who have invested in the IPL teams are all canny businesspersons who look beyond cricket and IPL to make money, like in real estate and tourism, parking unaccounted money, or to use them as a stepping stone for bigger businesses.

The success of the IPL, even when the second edition was shifted to South Africa last year on account of security concerns as the event was clashing with the Lok Sabha elections, gave Modi the courage to hold the Champions League late last year, which was also a smashing success, despite the fact that the Indian interest was limited to the four semi-finalists of the second IPL out of the 12 teams that participated from nine cricket-playing countries.

With top-class cricketers from across the world giving their best, the IPL has elevated the standard of cricket, not just Twenty20, to dizzy heights. Cricket fans now want the best, the very best, as the IPL has spoiled them like highly pampered kids.

The IPL has acquired such a pulling power that Tharoor took the risk of getting involved in the IPL auction, even if as the so-called ‘mentor’ of the Kochi franchisee, which not only cost him his ministerial berth, but also rocked his personal life due to his link-up with Kochi’s former stakeholder Sunanda Pushkar. Though the controversy may clip the wings of Modi, who is the chairman and commissioner of the IPL and the Champions League, as his popularity has created many enemies within the BCCI, there is no denying the fact that the IPL has given unprecedented opportunity to young players to express themselves with both bat and ball, and Modi should be credited for that.

In fact, every one associated with the IPL has benefitted hugely — the teams, players, sponsors, staging associations, media partners and sundry associates, as everything has a price tag in the IPL. Nothing is for gratis. The event has also created job opportunities for a number of people, at the local as well as the national level. The expansion of the IPL from eight to 12 teams`A0will spread out the matches to most states of the country to create a cricket-viewing experience and cricket culture, never ever imagined in`A0the past. The IPL has also provided a great platform for many retired Indian and international cricketers to carry on as long as their forms permit, the prime examples being Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath (he has now turned coach), and any number of foreign players as coaches and trainers, etc.

The matches have also become high-octane experiences, as after Brendon McCullum hit the first century of the IPL, scoring a hundred in 20 overs is now no big deal; getting a hattrick is`A0pass`E9 and scores of 250-plus are no more`A0rare occurrences. All kinds of cricket gear are being tested, and the Mongoose bat, with which Mathew Hayden hit a century in Delhi, and time-outs between plays are some of the new things witnessed in the third edition of the IPL. If the IPL is a tournament for clubs, the Champions League is a contest among clubs of the countries, and the young players of India hugely benefit when they play alongside and against legendary players like Warne, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumble, Gilchrist etc.

The inaugural edition lasted 46 days, and out of the scheduled 59 matches, only one was washed out. Each team played every other on a home and away basis, which worked out to 14 matches for each team. Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural edition of the IPL, while Deccan Chargers, who had finished at the bottom, emerged victorious in the second edition held at South Africa. Barring time-outs between plays, there is no change in the format, though this time, the home matches of Deccan Chargers were shifted from Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam to Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Cuttack, while two of Kings XI Punjab’s "home" matches were shifted to the picturesque ground at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

Even before the nature of the franchisee ownership puts a blot on the IPL image, it took a knocking in January when no Pakistani player was bought at the auction in which 66 players were on offer. Eventually, 11 players were bought by various teams, but no team picked up Pakistanis, who were prominent features in the first two editions of the IPL, as the players’ contracts were initially for three years. Whatever the detractors may say, the IPL has changed the way cricket is played and enjoyed, with liquor served in special enclosures and cheer girls adding to the "spirit" of the experience.

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