IPL needs changes before it's too late

As our television screens get bombarded by adverts of Champions League T20, one can’t help but have a look back at the cash-rich IPL’s series of flaws in an even more derogatory manner.

The man's gone, but the greed persists!

Whilst it has helped a whole generation of cricketers secure their future, so that the shameless manner in which the BCCI tends to treat its former cricketers remains a thing of the past, but it’s hard to look beyond how much harm it may be causing to its future talent pool.

If the mind behind this whole tournament, Lalit Modi, is now considered the enemy by the Board then why not question the format that he chose?

You have to just take a look at the teams participating in the CLT20 to see where the basic problems lie; all the participating teams are the local teams which play in all formats of the game that is excluding the four participating Indian teams.

If a club/team plays all formats of the game then there is more of a chance that they will be able to develop players better, and hopefully with time be able to produce some cricketers that are worthy of representing the country.

If they were to win the prize money on offer, most of it goes to the club which further helps them grow and it turn help the country, but is that the case with India? No.

If either of the Indian clubs wins it, it doesn’t benefit any of the state teams which participate in the Ranji competitions and provide us with players capable of playing for India at the highest level.

If you stop giving value to your local competitions and continue to turn a blind-eye to it then it would be seldom wrong to deride any player or for that matter the majority of fans if they questions its importance.

And if the current state of affairs continues, I can’t imagine getting us getting another Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble. We may still get another gifted individual with all the natural talent in the world, but would he be ready for the rigours of International cricket if we continue to give IPL performances more importance, remains an unanswered question with the history not favouring the IPL.

We get all our top quality players from the Ranji teams, so why not allow them to participate in the IPL, and try to get a proper system, rather than having the dichotomy between IPL and rest of the domestic cricket?

It could be argued that in a large country like India, hosting a tournament of IPL’s magnitude wherein all parts of the country are represented is a humungous task and seemingly impossible to organize given the short time span available to the Board to organize it.

Taking all this into consideration, an idea which comes to mind is that we can keep the current flock of teams as it is and yet integrate the rest of the cities/state into a two-tier or possibly a three tier system based on the popular system of promotion and relegation. The idea may be a little far-fetched, but it certainly makes sense and with time, gives everyone an equal chance in the long-term.

The logistics may become even more tiresome and may restrict some of the international stars which come in, but if the quality of the cricket is good and it should, as expected, have all the top Indian players, and then it would still attract the crowds as well as the advertisers. It could also finally be helpful in creating a sense of loyalty, which is certainly lacking at the moment thanks to that disgraceful and murky draft system.

In this case, everyone will have an incentive to reach the promised land of the IPL, but not at the cost of their original team, and the players on the face of it will be better off for it as they won’t be just spending two crazy months with the team, but will be representing them everywhere. So it may induce more credibility to their overall performance throughout the domestic season.

It would take a huge earthquake, something along the lines of the Modi corruption scandal, for the BCCI to even consider such revolutionary (getting ahead of myself?) changes, and therefore I do believe that they missed a chance back in 2010.

However, in the aftermath of that controversy we have seen where the true loyalties of the BCCI lie, with so many of the administrators holding a vested interest in the IPL. So it’s like banging your head against the wall as the mighty, yet demented, BCCI would never try to do anything to potentially harm its golden egg, but things always end and, as and when this will be threatened the Board will be forced to think.

If the Board waits till one such moment then the damage will have already been done, so if till that time it fails to plan for the future and continues to go after the money, then sadly regaining the number one position in World Cricket would take a long, long time.