The murky face of IPL has appeared several times now in the public domain. Ironically it has been the administration that is in the limelight for all the wrong reasons!! The cricketers are mercifully kept out.

The IPL was conceived to combat ICL, an innovative cricketing event which would have dwarfed the invincible BCCI had it been allowed to unfold without hindrance. Sadly Kapil Dev was a genius as a cricketer but lacked the astuteness and the manipulatory skill nor the fund raising ability that such a mega event dictates.

The overwhelming success of the two IPLs has had a very favorable impact on the fortunes of the organizers. A motley group of moneybags were found making a beeline for team ownership with offerings that would put some of the corporate raiders to shame!!!

The stakes were getting exorbitantly higher while the main course remained just the same….a few games of cricket!!!

A cricket euphoria had to be created over the length and breadth of the cricket loving nation and abroad as well.

 The advertising cost was upped exponentially and match tickets quadrupled in terms of cost!!!

Telecasting rights were sold at an unheard of price!!!

The revenue generated will have to satiate an assortment of the wealthy class who are eventually looking forward to reap a rich harvest every year on conclusion of the games. Meanwhile the cricketers are laughing all the way to their bank.

As an ardent lover of the game I wonder how this genre of cricket will affect me and the common man. Will the huge investment by corporates have a bearing on him??

 My common economic sense says definitely yes!!

The huge advertising expenditure or a good part of it will be skillfully camouflaged in the price of the commodity (FMCG’s). Finally the common man pays in installments while a marketing genius oversells the game.

The onus shifts to marketing more than the product quality. Corporates will invest more on marketing the product than on enhancing its quality as there are more avenues of doing so.

The selling mechanism would command a greater pay packet than their production counterpart. A scarcely clad dancing doll popularly known as the cheer leader in a game would be taking home an exorbitant salary than a production manager would ever hope to get.

IPL will definitely entertain him with all the frills attached but will rob the connoisseur the essence of the game. It will give him the joys associated with the game but not the thrill and the national pride when the nation wins.

A growing economy like India needs to harness funds for infrastructure and rural growth to bridge the gap between the wafer thin urban and the mammoth rural India.

A multicrore IPL event is not the need of the hour !!! what say????

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written by Raja, April 20, 2010

@Santosh-
IPL has become a big time money business. Actors, Businessmen, Politicians all are trying to reap its benefits in whatever way they can, some even by bending the rules.
The national pride involved with cricket is completely missing with people enjoying exotic fanfare more than the game itself .Lots of public money is wasted in providing security, lighting up stadiums and giving tax exemptions. Night parties, cheer-leaders, gambling and media hype have all made IPL an event where cricket is the last thing to be talked about. Cricket has become a means to achieve greater societal status by exploiting public craziness for the game. An innovation in cricket if continued in present form is going to ruin the spirit of the game in the long run.

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written by umbrella, April 20, 2010

@santosh-
T20 is a brilliant idea. India with it's current status as an emerging super power needs such money-spinners as a status symbol in global arena! But..as usual, the deep rooted corruption and greed spoiling the glory of IPL! If only we can invest the multi crore returns from IPL in the rural development...it'll be the D day for India!..but..it's an impossible dream. Cricket is the only thing on which we Indians have more power than anyone else. High time to tread with caution to maintain our strong hold.

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