Money Vs Talent

As IPL gains speed and races towards the finishing line, I’m unable to decide if it has changed cricket for the better or for worse. Had it not been a 20-20 format, I’d have been sure as to where I stand on this issue. Although I love the excitement it is generating, I am disappointed at the way the whole thing took shape. I feel guilty in a way because I find myself enjoying the matches in spite of my disappointment.

 

It’s such a shame that the idea to sign up international players and have them play against each other was not even an original idea. It was stolen from ICL. And just like you would take candy from a child and get away with it just because you are more powerful, BCCI got away with it. The ban on ICL and it being branded as a rogue or a rebel league was, if you ask me, very unfair. Just because you can and because someone didn’t listen to, you don’t ban them. It was uncalled for and BCCI was being unreasonably territorial. What happens to all the players who signed up with ICL? It’s so immature that all those players are banned from playing for the country. Is that what matters? That who one plays with or for will be the deciding factor as to whether one will play for the country or not? Shouldn’t we be encouraging talent? Because I’m sure that there are some players out there who have signed up with ICL that BCCI will miss out on just because they refused to act like adults.

 

While BCCI the bully, flexes its muscles and promises its players a pool of money to splash around in, talent takes a back seat. While one of the reasons that ICL was set up was to scout for and nourish talent in a professional environment, which is another reason that makes the ban seems unwarranted, IPL seems to have been set up for pure entertainment and financial reasons. Since when did cricket become about making money? And where is BCCI getting so much money to throw around from? The rate at which players are being paid and splurged on, there is no need for NGOs to look for funding from corporates and wealthy, philanthropic individuals. The nonchalance with which players are awarded bonuses, it wouldn’t be a surprise if tomorrow the world doesn’t consider us a developing, second-world country and international bodies like the UN veto all appeals for developmental loans.

 

It’s a given that IPL is a lucrative affair to be in, but whether it will help hone talent is a big question mark. The claim that youngsters are being given the opportunity to play at the international level and that it will do wonders for them are all baseless assumptions that to me seem more like justifications for the league to exist. It’s pure entertainment and let’s not mince words by calling it anything else. They all have to go back to playing ODIs and Tests and a 20-20 format, where sheer, brute force matters more than anything, is not something that will equip them with the necessary skills. One of the key factors to being a good player is to develop patience and technique. IPL, I’m not sure, provides a platform for that.

 

It’s about time that cricket is taken seriously and it’s played for the love of the game and the desire to be the best in the world. Inclusion in the squad should not depend on who you know or what strings you can pull. Players should be judged purely on merit and not on how they performed in a few previous matches. Selection should be based on a sensible mix of form and experience. I agree that players need to be phased out of the team once they are past their prime. But to undermine experience and saying that we need a younger and more energetic team and using that as a justification to leave senior players out is outrageous and insulting. Shane Warne, 38, is coach and captain of a team that tops the IPL table. Ganguly, 35, who was written off by critics and benched by a headstrong Dhoni, is proving to be a great captain, showing the world that he’s still got it in him. Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, McGrath, Pollock, Gibbs, Hayden, Hussey, to name a few, are all pushing 35 but are still performing better than most youngsters. Jayasuriya is 38 and is still capable of scoring 114 (not out) from 48 balls.

 

Experience speaks for itself. It’s obvious that talent needs to be nourished and players need to be molded and that all this will take some time. Money needs to be made but not at the cost of this. BCCI needs to rethink its attitude towards cricket and focus on nurturing the game and not turn it into a charade where the rich, who don’t know what to do with their money, are playing with it like a game of monopoly.