The dark side of the IPL

More the cricket, the tougher it becomes

News poured in a couple of days ago that India’s star opener, Virender Sehwag is out of World T20 Championships that will take place in West Indies in a fortnight’s time, due to shoulder injury. The only thought that struck me is about how this Indian Premier League is actually swallowing players in the name of cricketainment every other day.

The real concern

Actually Sehwag isn’t the first player to be affected by the excessive dosage of cricket this summer. Foreign nationals and Indians who are part of this mega event have all had to fight against odds to stay fit. Graeme Smith and Dimitri Masceranhas left Rajasthan Royals quite early in the tournament after both of them got injured. Smith, though, got a lot of time to recover as he got injured in the early days of IPL-3.Brett Lee came into Kings XI side after a long layoff due to injury. A few games into this season’s IPL, Lee got injured once again and did not turn up for Kings XI at Dharamsala. MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and now Tendulkar have all been in the injury radar during the last 6 weeks of this tournament.

This however is not the first time in IPL that so many players have got injured. Remember how Kevin Pietersen was sidelined for more than 6 months due to Achilles injury he discovered at South Africa last year? The league has so many injured players that we can easily rename the league as – Injured Players League.

A look at the injured list, one definitely wonders why we should host such a tournament in such a short span of time. IPL as a whole needs a major overhaul. The tournament in current format is slowly stinking. The 94-game plan for next few years is even more threatening simply because we will almost have 3 matches per day in the same 6 or 7 week period. If we the viewers on television get tired of watching it, imagine the plight of those players who are playing in hot and humid conditions during Indian summer with so much responsibility.

What can IPL really do?

If at all IPL can save cricketers, the only way is to totally change the format of the game or increase the total duration of the event. You just cannot have 94 games being played in 7 weeks time. The tournament could either be shortened to fit into the 7 week period or be lengthened to fit in the 94 matches. To put into perspective, this year’s IPL has a total of 56 games. While most of them are really tired of the league after 50 odd games, next year could only see half the tournament done after 50 games!

Injuries are definitely part and parcel of a sportsman’s life. Umar Gul and Yasir Arafat are already of World T20. What we know is that the international calendar in itself is full. Then why do we really have to stress our cricketers in a tournament like IPL which is actually not recognized by ICC? Common man would never question a cricketer if he is unavailable for his franchisee team due to injury. But the same man would be deeply hurt if his hero doesn’t turn up to perform for this country in one of the most important world championships. Ask any cricketer today, he would definitely tell that playing for country is more important than playing for Mumbai Indians or Chennai Super Kings.

Cricket mainly took roots with international matches. Traditionally, the international rivalry has been something purists love to watch. Club matches, franchisee cricket, although interesting, is getting into a severe tangle both on the field and off the field. With so much money at stake problems are sure to rise like tsunami one day or the other. That is exactly what is happening off the field. But let us stick on only to the cricketing perspective of Indian Premier League.

Seriously tired souls

There are many factors that make players totally drained and worn-out. Let us take the case of domestic players who are most excited to be part of this billion-dollar tournament. For those who believe that the Indian domestic calendar isn’t cramped like the International cricket calendar, here is a shocking truth. There are as much as 8 different national level tournaments happening throughout the year. The players travel really long distances and what more, former India test opener, Aakash Chopra tells that the quality of hotels, mode of transport is all poor even now. Imagine these budding cricketers toil hard through the day and sleep over hard beds with fans not working in the hotel room. The basic amenities are even missing. Playing throughout the year without any sort of break almost cramps him with tiredness by the time IPL begins. And when it does happen, he again starts to travel and keep giving more than 100% throughout the 7 week period. After the match is over he might not even get time to get a much wanted cold shower and a good night’s sleep. The organisers have made the IPL nights mandatory for most of these cricketers. Even if the organisers argue that these happen only in the hotels where the players stay put, it is only shockingly astonishing to note that the same players who are drained completely after the game party until the sun rises!

Copyrights – Ananthasubramanian

They catch up a flight for the next game, practice hard, play the game even harder and keep partying the hardest! How can a human body take up this toil? If this is the case for domestic cricketers who rarely see so much of glitz and glamour, imagine the likes of Kevin Pietersen, MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara and Dale Steyn who are still very much alive and kicking in international arena. They travel all over the world keep playing international cricket in all formats throughout the year and finally these 45-days add too much pain to the already cramped international cricket calendar.

Too much cricket?

If IPL goes this way, there are going to be more and more casualties in the future. Next year, the IPL will begin just a week after the World Cup is completed. The World Cup in itself is a very tough competition considering the length of the tournament and the levels of fitness players must possess for the 50-over game. The 7-week, 94-game IPL begins soon after that. Each team will play a minimum 18 games during the months of April and May. Soon after the IPL, the Indian team travels to West Indies and England for test and ODI tours. Really, how much can our cricketers take?

The Indian Premier League looked like it was a novel idea when it started in 2008. Three years down the line, we find lots of issues with the league; leave aside the monetary part of it. Cricketers’ careers would definitely be shortened. No one would ever be able to play for 20 years again. A five or six year period on top would be the maximum players could achieve. After that period, they might go the Freddie way – Retire from test cricket, reject the national board contract and play as a freelance cricketer at any part of the world whenever possible.

The bigger the IPL gets, the painful it is for the purists. I am sure test matches would soon die. No one would ever learn to play a waiting game, a game when a batsman needs to respect the bowler who is in some rhythm. Going by the 500-odd sixes hit so far, there is soon going to be the death of this group called – the bowler! There is absolutely no respite for this breed of hard working gentlemen. The day is not far off when you’d see a tussle between batsmen of two sides playing against manipulated bowling machine.

Cricket was so refreshing when Allan Donald, in pure whites, used to run in with fire and keep bowling barrage of bouncers at Michael Atherton. Cricket was so refreshing when Sachin Tendulkar took Shane Warne to the cleaners when both these legends were on top of their game. Cricket was so refreshing when Steve Waugh led his country to an almost improbable victory during the English summer of ’99. Cricket was so refreshing when Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh actually made their ball talk!

One of Vodafone’s Zoozoo ads shows a Zoozoo ringmaster fire a dull, disinterested and sad like a canon ball in a circus. The ringmaster here is the IPL organizer while the Zoozoo under fire are our beloved cricketers. What we are seeing now on Set Max is not really cricket. Because, cricket never actually makes clowns and puppets out of its cricketers.