The IPL: Irritating, putrid and lacklustre

This year has seen the third instalment of the Indian Premier League, the richest cricket competition in the world. Player salaries have been revolutionised for the first time since Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, the international cricket calendar has become more crowded, and the influence of Indian cricket from a commercial point of view is so great that the tournament is demanding an exclusive window to operate within from the International Cricket Council.

Who would have thought that the T20 game, having been first used in England’s county system in 2003, would in 2010 be competing with and threatening the existence of ODI and, to my horror, Test cricket? Straight after the IPL finishes, the World T20 Cup is set to begin in the West Indies. A case of killing the golden goose?

While T20’s prolific rise has been much commentated about by those involved in the gentlemen’s game, the IPL itself has fallen under increased scrutiny over the past two weeks. Shashi Tharoor, a member of India’s government as the junior minister for government, was forced to resign on Sunday because, as quoted from the Business Day since they sum things up quite succinctly, “opposition parties alleged that a Dubai-based businesswoman and a friend of Tharoor was granted a free stake in a new team [read the Kochi franchise] in the IPL that he helped to set-up.” The fight that has broken out between Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, and Tharoor over the new-Kochi franchise, with the IPL expanding by another two franchises, has stirred a hornet’s nest of interest from the Indian tax authorities.

Recently, an eight hour operation was conducted last week where a team visited the IPL’s offices, Modi’s personal residence and the franchise offices of the King XI Punjab. Indian authorities are also thinking about conducting a wide-spread evaluation and investigation of the other IPL teams, with rumours suggesting that several MP’s are involved in some of the franchises. The plot thickens…

This is all taking place against a backdrop of unprecedented financial success for the IPL, with the league being estimated to be worth $4,13-billion. That is a lot of carrots that need to be sliced and diced, or hidden depending on what the different owners’ points of view are in relation to income tax.

Even between all this, a bomb blast happened in Bangalore hours before an IPL match, with the match still going ahead, with three other bombs around the cricket stadium being found and defused a day later. Professional Cricketers’ Association cheif executive Angus Porter, the head of England’s player representative body, stated to the BBC that “I don’t think it is any secret that there were some problems in Bangalore”.

He was of the opinion that safety was compromised with the decision for the game to be held being made too early, on too little information. Added to this, when the team (which contains Kevin Pietersen, Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis to just name a few) left after the match, their bus was stuck in traffic and without a police escort, something with which the players were very concerned about. Nobody wants a repeat of what happened to the Sri Lankan cricket team when they toured Pakistan. The IPL semifinals have now been moved to Mumbai as a result, and the Commonwealth Games are to be held in India soon. Doesn’t bode well does it?

Apart from this off-field circus the playing action all seems to me, an admitted purist and lover of Test cricket, a bit staid and dreary, like an old beer that has been open for too long, and that will give you stomach cramps if consumed. Sure, Kallis and Steyn have both had very good tournaments and JP Duminy is hopefully finding some form before the West Indies but with there being a couple of games everyday, it all gets a bit retarded. The pitches are flat, the bowlers more often than not are there for the taking and the amount of sixes and fours that have been hit make it all a wee bit pointless. T20 cricket isn’t cricket, more a bastard child between cricket’s basics and money-driven capitalist thinking.

There is talk that T20 cricket provides a different format for players with certain skill sets to excel, like David Warner as an example.

I’m sorry, but all that talk about T20 being ‘it’s own game’ or whatever bullshit is sent to our ears is just that. The fact that the top run scorer is Kallis, a batsmen described by Steve Waugh as ‘technically brilliant’, shows that when the bails are taken off the stumps at the end of play, quality players will always shine through. T20 ‘specialists’ is just a euphemism you use to describe players not good enough for Test or first class cricket. DLF Maximum? Puke, and what a load of balls.

When T20 first arrived on the scene I was as excited as everyone else, but since then several trips to Newlands and the Wanderers have shown me that people aren’t there for the cricket, but rather the party that goes along with it. The ICC might see T20 as a new way to expand the game (or get rich) and bring in new followers, but what is the point if those new converts don’t even understand the true dynamics of the game, being an equal contest between bat and ball. That is what cricket is really about, with it being one of the few games where slight changes in conditions influences the nature in which a match pans out. All they, the T20 musketeers, are doing is adding consumers to their fan base, and not cricket fans as they might tell you.

T20 is indeed the game’s golden goose, but those who wear the luminescent suits imported from Italy and wonderful wrist watches made in Switzerland should realise (surely they know right?) that a commodity’s value is directly related to how rare it is and who has it. Right now, cricket is vomiting T20 cricket all over the globe, and personally I’m struggling to tell the difference or even give a crap. Besides, vomit does have a rather rancid smell.

Give me Test cricket, and the sun burn that goes with it, any day.