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How the IPL Murdered Cricketing Merit

Go ooh, go aah, go gasp, go rotfl, go wtf, or any emotion that comes to mind, but none can do justice to the exclamation of surprise I let out when I looked at the auction, over and over again in disbelief. If this is the IPL’s idea of making cricket entertaining, it’s doing a great job – and is treading the mighty thin line which separates cricket from being a sport as opposed to entertainment.

Consider this: Ricky Ponting is arguably the world’s best batsman, atleast the best batsman out there in the auctionables, alongside Matthew Hayden who has proved himself at the T20 level. In the same squad, exists a young, rookie pacer, a certain long-haired bowler who goes by the name of Ishant Sharma, who fetched – and I’m not shitting you on this – $950,000. That’s more than twice the purchase value of Ponting and Hayden. Strange. Of course, Shahrukh Khan could argue that he gone one of the finest T20 bowlers, Umar Gul, at a throwaway rate of $150,000, which is like buying an i-Pod Shuffle for $4.99, a 1GB version if I may.

Continuing the absurdity, Uthappa went for $800,000 – I don’t understand why – when someone like Boucher went for just $450,000. I mean, I can understand Dhoni’s extraordinary price – he did captain the side to the trophy, and he is a fine, fine hard-hitting batsman with great attitude – but hello, is he really a better player than Gilchrist or Boucher? And how did all the other chaps go for so less?

It’s extremely evident, from the auction, that this was a series of pure business transactions and had nothing to do with each player’s ability. The idea was to get the crowd-pullers, and as a result, young folks who could get better sponsorship deals or prove better brand ambassadors have come out tops. Girls would generally go ga-ga over an Uthappa selling Coke, doesn’t really matter if Ponting times the ball a hundred times better so Uthappa obviously – yet shockingly – fetches a larger price.

That is shameful for the sport. It makes these cricketing heroes look like you-know-whats, and the IPL-organizers their pimps. With all that money floating around, was it really worth murdering the merit in the game?

The other point is, all this dough for T20? Agreed, T20 is exciting, has all the fun, gets all the crowds, gets a certain group of four females to swing their hips and shake their rears ever time the ball (cricketing one) kisses the rope or the woodwork, but excuse me, for what really? There is little in T20 that challenges a cricketer as compared to Test or ODIs, and while I am in no means against T20, where is the cricketing ability put to Test? Unless, of course, you’re commenting and the fingers fly faster. Make no mistake, I’m all for T20, but isn’t there way too much money pumped into this game? And isn’t this being ultra-rude to some of cricket’s contemporary greats?

And don’t even get me started on the disappointment that so much more money is still pumped into this game, and for the players. Every extra penny spent on Dhoni and his team is a penny that could’ve otherwise gone to sponsoring a non-cricketing sportsman or sportswoman, and given them, and their sport, better recognition.

Those who know me, know how crazy I am about cricket, the kinds who have, and will, cancel dates, sleep two hours at night and in the future might even call in sick just to catch a match. I want the sport to grow, to excel, to improve, and to evolve, but if this is how it’s going to happen, then growth be damned, give me my old game back.

Worst of all, I am disappointed that this bastardisation of cricket happened in my own backyard. Come early April and the obsession with cricket will re-ignite automatically – one Harsha Bhogle ESPN promo will get me kicking – but for now, I see the IPL more as a trading floor than a cricketing league. The BCCI better fix this soon, otherwise the IPL will turn out to be the item-number of the cricketing calendar as opposed to a competitive cricketing league.

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