Has the Indian Premier League lost its way?

With the Delhi Daredevils‘ elimination from CLT20, 2012 – being the only team to have qualified for semifinal – the fight from Indian teams ended. In fact, the Daredevils’ qualification for semis seemed to be only the positive in tournament where Top 4 teams from IPL failed to deliver. With termination of Deccan Chargers franchisee and then consequently being sold to Sun TV at almost 85 cr. per year, questions have already been raised on the entire process. So is IPL all about controversy and money or has it fulfilled its goal of promoting and developing young cricketers in India?

The Indian Premier League has always been about three things – cash, cricket and controversy. Ever since it started in 2008, there has been abundance of all three. IPL has provided a healthy dose of entertainment to its fans and cricketers alike. It has been a darling of the news media not just because of the run-fests but also because of the fodder it provides for them to chew on, generating controversies one after another. Be it allegations of match-fixing or cricketers slapping each other or owners taking offense for almost everything, IPL never fails to deliver.

The list of controversies are endless starting with the suspension of Lalit Modi for “alleged acts of individual misdemeanors”, or Luke Pomersbach – Australian player with Royal Challengers Bangalore – being arrested on charges of molesting an Indian-American woman and severely attacking her fiancee leaving him in hospital or the infamous slap-gate controversy involving Mumbai Indians‘ Harbhajan Singh and Kings XI Punjab’s S. Sreesanth and last but not least, Shah Rukh Khan’s scuffle at Wankhede and also being handed a five-year ban from entering the Wankhede Stadium by the Maharashtra Cricket Association. Then IPL-5 brought forward new low when spot-fixing allegations rattled the Indian Premier League, but Indian cricket board reacted swiftly to allegations of spot-fixing and underhand financial dealings, suspending five players until an inquiry was conducted.

The Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise was terminated by the BCCI for breaching its terms of agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, each franchise had to submit a bank guarantee every year that covers the fee payable to the BCCI and the recent of termination of Deccan Chargers and later being sold to Sun TV only adds to the controversial non-cricket activities. But has BCCI lost its way or has it just been that controversies kept coming at its doorstep?

It is difficult to assess how much of a brand the IPL is going to grow in the coming years and whether it achieves the success even close to English Premier League; all of this can be a reality check for the IPL governing council and BCCI. What value the BCCI can extract from market that is tight should provide some idea of whether the IPL remains as attractive earlier to all its stakeholders be it the team owners, sponsors, broadcasters or the spectators. By all accounts, the IPL has also fallen short of providing a robust business model (as yet) which would make franchise owners gleeful and at present making money is not as easy as was the case back in 2008, when IPL was conceived. It has provided a healthy dose of entertainment to its fans and cricketers alike. The journey of Indian Premier League has been a rollercoaster ride so far, but it is important that its get its act right and consolidate the initial success and not be overshadowed by controversies.