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Two interesting developments that
have taken place over the last few days have sprung the Packeresque Indian
Cricket League back into the news. The first of these is that the League has
reportedly approached Cairns and Astle to play in it.
With rumours that Warne and Lara have also been approached fluttering around since some time, it is beginning to look like Subhash Chandra
and Zee are hell bent on fulfilling their promise of getting big name
super-stars to participate in the event - irrespective of how old they are.
For the uninitiated, the ICL is the Indian Cricket League, launched by Subhash
Chandra, an Indian Media Moghul and head of the Zee media network. The history here is
eerily similar to that of Packer's World Series. Zee have been attempting to
get rights to broadcast Indian cricket for years now without getting anything
concrete to show for it. So, keeping the whole Mountain and Mohammad story in
mind, Zee decided to launch its own cricket league. Six teams, owned by
private clubs or entities, play Twenty20 games against each other with promises
of big money, big stars and big entertainment surrounding the show.
The members of the ICL board so far include Kapil Dev, Dean Jones,
Kiran More and Sandeep Patil. Now, is it just me, or does the age gap
between the (potential) actual players and the board members seem to be getting
increasingly narrow? While it will certainly be exciting to watch Lara
and Astle take on Cairns and Warne, it would only match up
to the billing if the players in question play it as they would play a serious
match and not take it as veteran’s game.
And this is an issue that doesn’t concern just Zee and its stakeholders. There
is a sound chance that the ICL could fizzle away, lost in the extraordinary
flood of cricket (I wish I could have framed that as a 'flood of extraordinary
cricket' instead) that is being played around the world today. But what could
have deep consequences for the rest of the cricket world is the 35-40% chance that the ICL has of actually succeeding.
Glancing several years into the future with a slightly fanciful vision, the
ICL may lay the stepping stones for a paradigm shift in the game. A shift
into a full fledged 'club' format, with independent teams buying & selling
players and competing against each other in a set-up similar to what football
follows around the world. We could think about the possibilities there for the
length of five Geoff Boycott innings and still not get anywhere close to
covering everything.
But the more certain, less speculative and more immediate change it could bring
about is to shake up the shoddy, shady and undeniably shabby way the BCCI
(and some other cricket boards) operate. A commercially successful, popular
and professionally run ICL could finally give the BCCI monopoly the shock in
the arse it so badly deserves. That could only benefit Indian - and by an
extension, World cricket.
This brings us to the second
significant development. With the usual exceptional promptitude and skill
it shows in sensing anything that threatens its interest, the BCCI has already
‘blacklisted’ the ICL. Which means sending an ‘Either with us or against us’
circular to all state organizations, officials and everyone else concerned
warning them not to get involved in any way with the ICL. Typically, the BCCI has chosen to act like the big bully rather than the sporting competitor, and has attempted to bulldoze the potential enemy. This ‘blacklisting’,
more than anything else, is a clear indication that what everyone is
speculating (and hoping) has some weight to it, and the BCCI recognizes that the
ICL has a significant threat to its monopoly.
The ICL is an interesting idea, but it is not the first of its kind. Indian
liquor baron Vijay Mallaya had earlier toyed around with the concept of a
'Corporate Cup', with teams owned/ sponsored / managed by corporate bodies
competing. This raised extremely delectable visions of a MRF team featuring Sachin,
Lara and Brett Lee, before abruptly disappearing off the scene.
It is unlikely that the ICL will see that happening, with Zee already
having put in significant investment. But it will require more than just
getting the show on the road to thwart the might and political muscle of the
BCCI. Attempting to sign on pastmasters such as McGrath, Lara and Cairns seems like a dubious way to kick
start it & the success of this strategy – assuming they are actually going
to play, that’s not confirmed yet - depends more on how enthusiastic the
players are in the mind than in the body.
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