Why the idea of IPL/T20 has to be re-visited/re-thought

1. My first argument is it destroys the good old cricket. It’s a good old argument which will be countered by a valid point that there is no time to spare for a 5 day event.

IPL was never an original idea. All the finer points were borrowed from soccer leagues and even NFL. In the greed to rake in maximum money we forgot that no other leagues altered the rules of the game. T20 was begun keeping in mind to start cricket leagues. But cricket was sacrificed for the purpose and no league except the Indian version became successful.

Let me be honest. I have no such false ideas as Test cricket will gain popularity. I have no such belief. But we can prevent T20 from being a mindless entertainer if we tweak the rules a bit.

2. ICC should be mature enough to accept the IPL and other cricket leagues. If not, they have to come up with viable alternatives. There are only a handful of cricketing teams and it’s a huge bore to watch them time and again.

3. It’s true that the stakeholders have invested millions in the clubs and they ought to rake in the money back. Advertisements in between each ball are certainly not the way to do it.

4. Redesign the jerseys. The team colour is one way in which the team is branded. The base colours have to remain constant. That is a way loyalty and passion is cultivated among fans. But sadly IPL has some of the worst jerseys. At least base colours have to remain the same. But even they are changed every season. Another option is do the ‘home and away’ in English model.

I believe one jersey sponsor is good enough. The Punjab Kings walking with the sicker of Vim ironed to their jersey is a good joke, I remember the Deccan Chargers had almost all the sponsors in the country on their shirts.

5. In a 5 day competition there are 11 batsmen in an innings, so does an ODI. Do we need 11 in T20 too. I don’t think so. The real trouble with the IPL is the quality teams aren’t winning. The game is won merely on individual performances. Out of the 11 if a couple of batsmen bat or a couple of bowlers bowl the game is won. It might be good for the unpredictability but not good for a team game.

6. Cricketing is turning out to be more and more a continental game. Leagues have to be started in other countries to give opportunities for more and more players. It’s no fun for IPL to exist alone in the big world

7. IPL is caught between devil and the sea on participation of more and more teams. Lalit Modi and his businessmen friends would love to rake in more and more money through more teams. But even two more teams can more than double the number of games. This could lead to a variety of problems.

The fixtures are very tightly arranged to get maximum number of foreign players and maximum money for TV channels. Two more teams can strain these adjustments to a point of rupture.

Presently a team has 14 games. This is no football league and viewers are in here for mere entertainment. 14 games spanning for more than a month is boring them a great deal. More games would certainly prompt them to switch off their TV sets.

One good idea is to start a second division and relegation practice as in soccer. An impractical solution considering the huge amount each owner paid for the team.

Start two seasons a year with different set of players in each.

8. I believe we will have to bid goodbye to the ageing Australians soon.

9. Start buying and selling players between the teams. It will add to the drama of IPL. I have found that weakness of a team remains the same for years. I can’t understand why there is no attempt to buy or develop the players they need.

10. Throw out the slimy bastard, Modi. He is too much a crook and will some day bring down the entire establishment of IPL.

11. The selection of Indian T20 teams has to be done based on the performances in IPL. Sadly Indian selectors still go for the selection based on star value. I strongly stand for a separate team for T20 rather than the same one in all the formats.