No Salary cap in IPL is no good

Offer of a 4 mn contract to Peterson is already doing its round and at the same time we are hearing that there might not be any Salary Cap for the players in IPL from Next season onwards. For the first season, a franchise could spend only 5 mn dollar at the max on its players. Dhoni turned out to be the costliest T20 dude followed by the biggie Andrew Symonds.

Obviously, cricket in its T20 form in general and IPL in particular is all about economics and making money. No one can deny that and no one can question that. It is only going to get bigger with players getting salaries to the tune of millions of dollars for a few months. Why this is an area of concern?

1. It has already been a success with the Salary cap in place. First edition of IPL has already seen a fierce competition. After all what is the need to change it?
2. Without no salary cap, a team like Bangalore, if the frustration of its owner is anything to go by, would try to buy many big players at any money. A few other franchisee would also do the same and it would then turn out to be who has got the Money power and it would no longer be about the cricket players. A franchise spending more money would become a stronger team. Won't this make things boring? Don't we still want T20 to be a cricket game? Or we as spectator just want to see this as a dollar game?
3. So much money in quick time is no good for cricketers either. It would challenge the national loyalty of the players because why would someone not want to earn 10 times the money what he would earn playing for his country? Also in a double quick time?
4. Because of point three, many international teams might lose many players. Ricky ponting has time and again raised this concern. New Zealand has already lost so many to ICL. Now many players might stop playing for their countries and would prefer just to play in the IPL. After all IPL would last only for about 2 months. They can chill out with their families and friends in the remaining months of the year. With no designated window carved out for IPL from the international calender, this seems to be a close possibility. The international teams would be affected and obviously ICC's vision is not aligned to this development. What about spreading it to different countries?

I am afaird of the following consequences in the years to come:

1. Cricket might be run only by such franchises and ICC would become a defunct organization or would exist just for the sake of it.
2. All other forms of cricket, Test, ODIs etc would be scrapped and we would only see T20s.
3. No international matches to be played and it would only be domestic tournament, cricket's NBA? A team from Bangalore or Delhi might be declared the world champions of cricket soon.
4. And many more things, we never dreamt of.

Good luck purists.

The Royal Blame Game Continues

As per a recent article from timesofindia.com, the blame game of Royal challengers refuses to attain some maturity. The report says that the IPL team owner and the beerwalah, Vijay Mallaya wanted Dhoni, Uthappa and McCullum in his team rather than Mark Boucher, Anil Kumble, Sunil Joshi or even Rahul Dravid. This is a serious Masala news for every reader and no wonder this news has been first reported in times of India.

I am outlining a few revealation from the report that is eye catching. My thoughts on these would follow.

1. While Mallya was really keen to get Dhoni and wanted to bid for him, Dravid insisted that "there is no need for such an expensive player". The same went for McCullum, whom Dravid is believed to have turned down and instead settled for Mark Boucher.

2. Sunil Joshi, whose cricketing career is almost over, was taken in the team just because he is supposed to be a close friend of Rahul Dravid. This was a surprising decision to many of the Royal Challengers Officers.

3. Kumble had to be selected in the T20 team being the nice guy Dravid himself is.

4. RC officers also blamed Charu sharma for taking things easily at the start. He is learnt to have suggested that "the boys need to bond, let's go to Ranthambore for four days".

5. Seeing the performance in the IPL debut, Royal challengers are not ruling the possibility of changing its players in the next IPL season if the rules allow to do so.

I have serious reservations about the point number 1. I do not think Mallaya might be having such a good cricketing knowledge that he wanted Dhoni, Uthhapa and McCullum. This revelation is only a continuation of what I already posted 2 days ago. This is only a blame game at best. Now that things have not worked, impose it on the obvious scapegoats.

Point number 2 and 3 are acceptable. By no cricketing logic, Sunil Joshi and Anil Kumble deserve a place in the Twenty20 Team. A close look at the other IPL teams would show that none of those teams have picked similar players. Dravid has failed in this regard completely. The question is, why would he do so? One reason could be friendship as mentioned in the article, but I believe Dravid (and Co.) might have taken this IPL stuff too lightly. Probably as a time pass fun game.

As for point 4, probably 4 days for outdoor activity was a bit too much given the tight schedule IPL has, but the idea was not a bad one altogether. Lack of experience of Charu Sharma at this level and unexpected money that he probably was supposed to receive probably worked against him.

Only future would tell what actually Royal challengers would do about point 5 or if they at all be allowed to do something they have started thinking right now given the fact that there is a slimmest of chances for every team from now on to make into the semis.

Seeing all this "halla bol" by the Royals, It aptly proves the fact that IPL is in its nascent stage. This is only its first year. Probably these experiences would come handy for all teams in the subsequent season as the Organization IPL and all its franchises would mature.

But my conclusion remains the same, and more so if they are not allowed to change players at their own desire, they are not doing anything good by making all such things open for public even when there are so many games to go in the current IPL. Vijay Mallaya and Co need to understand that only 4 out of 8 teams would qualify for Semis and others would have to sit out. There is no end of the road for those teams who would be out. In sports, you win some and you lose some and more importantly everyone can't be a winner. Do we have a term called "Gracious Loser". I believe it is a more respectable tag than simply "loser".

Sorry Punjab you may be Kings but we are super kings

As Chennai Super Kings beats Punjab Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai by 18 runs, thanks to the first hattrick of the IPL by the forgotten pace battery L Balaji and blistering knock by Chennai's adoped captain and Jharkhand's Hero MS Dhoni well supplemented by chennai's own son Badrinath's well compiled half century, we have a chance to go back and think if the IPL is finally able to infuse the loyalities in the cricket fans for their local teams?

Looking at the enthusiasm of the fans and the kind of placards they put on display, I believe it is slowly slowly catching up. We have also seen Dravid not being acknowleded and cheered for his boundaries in Bombay already. In today's match too, when Yuvraj singh was cleaned, the roar of the crowd was so intense as if they were celebrating dismissal of Ricky Ponting in an India Australia match. I do not know how the international stars might be coping with this sudden change of loyalties by their own fans but this is definitely good for the future of IPL and it seems IPL is on good track.

This observation is eye catching because for a team that has its coach, captain and as many as half of the team members from not the same soil, receiving this amount of fan loyality is something extraordinary. In my opinion this may be attributed the maturity and the love for the game of the Chennai cricket fans. A good cricket, a good bowling spell, murderous big sixes contribute more towards team loyalities than just the "Sun of the soil" factor.

Observing the halla bol going on in one of the most developed states of India on the related subject lines of "Son of the soil" by Raj Thakrey Vs the UP and Bihar, It is so pleasing to feel that cricket is such a good leveler of Nationality among indians. In this respect, I believe the world of cricket which ofcourse comprises all sort of its fans is much more mature, well behaved, loyal and responsible.

This article has also been published on www.cricweed.com