Conservatives and traditionalists always condemn any move which is going to break the predefined rules. Be it in sport, movies, politics or any other filed they have their own prejudice and they

won’t accept somebody breaking the barrier. A sensation is rippling in Indian Media from last 4 months. It’s getting lots of criticism because it’s trying break certain set of predefined rules. Yes, I’m talking about ICL, Indian Cricket League. Let’s look into this matter with an open mind and conceived vision.

Why ICL came into existence?

Zee telefilms always wanted to create sports content specially cricket content for it’s viewers. They launched Zee Sports to grab the BCCI rights till 2006. After this, Zee also acquired 50 % of stake in Ten Sports in November 2006. During his battle with BCCI and ESPN Star Sports for the five-year telecast rights in August-September 2004 in the Bombay High Court, Subhash Chandra was present every day for the hearings. This shows the seriousness of Chandra in generating sports content. His bid was highest ($307 million) but still he was denied by then BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

Chandra supported Sharad Pawar’s candidature as BCCI president just to grab the rights but he couldn’t succeed there as well. Nimbus got the BCCI’s telecast rights till 2011.

Subhash Chandra now knew that he has lost the rights till 2011 but he was very much eager to jump into this business and hence a new concept called ICL came into his mind.

When ICL was born?

April 3, 2007 a new Arian born to rule the world. Subhash Chandra’s Zee Telefilms along with infrastructure major IL&FS launched a new cricket league. Indian Cricket League (ICL) was the name given and what attracted most of the people is the money associated with it. It was setup with 100 Crore (1 billing Rs) Rs of corpus. Initially it will start with 6 teams and in 3 years it will have 16 teams playing. The winning prize is 1 million Rs, which is highest for any league.

What is the structure of new league?

Initially it will have 6 teams and ICL will organize Twenty20 cricket tournament. Each team will have 4 international 2 Indian and 6 domestic players and they will be coached by a former Indian player. Board members of this group are including Kapil Dev, Tony Greig, Dean Jones and Kiran More and these positions are paid positions. Currently Kapil Dev is the chairman of this board.

So this is all about ICL setup and it’s structure. It seems to be a nice concept as it’s going to provide international exposure to our domestic players. Now the question is if it’s so good then why there’s so tussle? To understand about this tussle we will have to look into entire structure of cricket in India. We will also have to dig out some facts which are hidden or not known to many of us. Let’s disperse them one by one.

Board VS Players – Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the richest Cricket Board in the world but still they can’t produce a world class team. The standard of domestic cricket is not up to mark. It doesn’t help players to be competitive and also it doesn’t pay them enough to motivate them. In short nobody is happy with the situation. Even players wanted some improvement.

Cricket is a money making machine – BCCI is the richest board because cricket is a religion in India. People are crazy about this game. They don’t even mind buying a ticket of Rs. 5000 for a match. In short, Cricket is money making machine in India. If you are a businessman and want good ROI (return on investment) then invest in cricket, you will not regret.

People need entertainment and quality – People want some good entertainment while watching a match. They also want that India should produce good quality players who can compete with any other player / team in the world. We can’t see Australia dominating the Cricket as always.

Game is ON – ICL may be a business concept for Subhash Chandra. It may be a prestige issue for Kapil Dev. It may be money providing agency for former International players. It may be a boat for sinking careers of some hopeless domestic players. It may be a good platform for some promising domestic players. But, for a normal Indian, it’s a TOOL which is going to improve the level of competitive cricket in India. A TOLL which can produce good players and it will also ensure that BCCI does some corrective action.

What had happened to earlier leagues of the world?

World Series Cricket was formed by Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer in the late 1970s, and played a major role in the commercialization of cricket in Australia.

Pro Cricket League in USA formed by Kalpesh Patel. It started with eight teams on 2 July 2004 and expired the same year.

Stanford 20/20 formed in 2006 by billionaire Sir Allen Stanford in the West Indies. We are yet to see the outcome.

What may happen to ICL?

ICL can help in the improvement of competitive cricket in India like World Series Cricket did for Australia.

ICL may collapse with its own load or with not getting enough response from public / market.

Let’s hope for the best. Best for Indian Cricket and best for Indian viewers.

Courtesy:

www.wikipedia.com
www.rediff.com
www.indiancricketleague.in

Who is your favorite sports player in this field?

Steve Wagh