“
It’s almost like they were waiting to see me fail”, said former IPL sensation
Kamran Khan in an interview. Well, for those enthusiastic cricket fans, you would remember the find of the season by Shane Warne in the first edition of IPL,
when he bowled the first ever Super Over and got Chris Gayle out. He was a revelation to the whole cricket world as he came from on experience of first class cricket to the “so called” biggest stage. But now, he is almost back to where he was previously. While
the implosion of money continues it would be heart-warming to see such talent in the premier stage. The money making spree continues in IPL, with the superstars of modern cricket taking the field by storm.
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| Captains with IPL trophy 2016 |
But let’s rewind to the history of IPL.
IPL was an initiative by the BCCI, well and good. But, it was created as a sort of
revenge tactic to the ICL that seemed to fall out of favour of both the ICC and BCCI. While not completely favouring the ICL initiative, the tournament was downtrodden by both, blatantly
nullifying their chances to gain access to stadiums and players. The question we need to ask ourselves is,
WHAT FOR!? When
Kapil Dev joined the infamous brand adopted by ZEE TV, BCCI had him resign and put an all but end to the tournament, only to start the birth of their own tournament, that too on the lines of the famous baseball leagues and on the lines of the rival they oppressed. Yes, IPL has been a growing form of entertainment for all the Indian Cricket fans including me. But, at what cost. The entertainment is amazing with the likes of
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers taking the world by the scruff of their neck. But, the IPL was initiated with a singular motive, and that was to inculcate the domestic talent and make it into something that the world stares in awe at. Introducing the
lit up stumps and the extravagant developments of
The Big Bash, IPL has grown to become a grossing entertainment form worldwide, even in the many countries which barely participate in the sport.
But a contradiction is fairly evident. If the sole purpose was to inculcate this immaculate domestic talent, then why to put such a forceful end to a league which would have brought about the same purpose. Terminating the contracts of players joining the ICL, and applying restrictions on states to provide their stadiums is by far,
not the correct way to put an end to a league which was after all started with the
same objective. If we look at the larger perspective of the sport, all the players have worked through strenuous domestic cricket to reach this stage. Now take a look at
Kamran Khan. He took the cricket field by storm.
But now, where is he? Their talent has reached the world’s eyes, but if it is just downtrodden by the management, which has been through enough corrupted events like the
infamous scandals with CSK & RR, the profit (not in terms of money :P) is minimal.
Well, let’s just hope
the implosion of talent beats the implosion of money, just for the progress of the sport, the betterment of our consciousness and of course for those talented cricketers like those whom Shane Warne found sleeping on railway platforms.
P.S. He ripped Jacques Kallis’ stumps apart for chrissake.
He deserves a second chance!!!
Written by Adishesh Premkumar
An ardent believer in lethargy. An astute follower of all the good things in life.
