Monday, September 22, 2008
Long live the leagues
On the mass defection of Bangladeshi players to the Indian Cricket League, most people have focussed on what it tells us about boards like that of Bangladesh and the players' lot. But to me it's more fundamental than that. It shows that cricket is finally going the way other major international sports like soccer and tennis have gone: the leagues, clubs and circuits are primary, while national contests get pushed to the periphery. With TV providing the main sporting audience, it's now a question of bringing international talented players together in formats like ICL and IPL and that can actually be good for the game, and also globalise it more effectively than by say getting cricket into the Olympics. A fuller exposition on this is in an article I wrote for DNA: Why cricket should go the soccer way
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6 comments:
i would see more of a ICL pro thing since DNA is also a pub of Essel group isn't it?
Just wanted to know what ICL going to do for "longer form of game" as they keep talking abt giving chance to yungsters to play cricket.
do they plan just T20 or else they wish to create a environment where the rebels and ex players can revel in longer format.
i feel ICL would score a major boost when somebody from IPL switches over to ICL. Till then any ex player or young player or any minnow player crossin over to ICL wont affect IPL or international cricket.
Does ICL have any agenda besides vendetta out of BCCI and luring and blinding cricketers with money power ? Any real benefits of expertise and experience to the young players ?
the only difference is that football is still a 90 min game whether its played in league, club or national level...
while cricket has t20, odi and most importantly TESTs...the challenge here is more to preserve all versions of game specially TESTs...how they are going to fit all into a package...?
or should we say bye to tests?
You're right, cricket is on the expansion mode and club cricket will be the next big thing in coming years.
That apart Television(add internet as well) is going to be the prime medium of cricket viewing.The poor showing up of spectators in the stadiums in the India-Srilanka series is testimony to this fact.
i agree with you, cricket inclusion demands in the Olympics are unnecessary. As Olympics should be left alone to athletics and other sports; as they can't compete with sports like cricket and soccer. Including addictive sports like cricket, will sideline sports like athletics etc. And that is not good, as more than anything; Olympics is a forum that symbolizes universal brotherhood. And it is better represented than even the UNO.
sp, yes that's an importance difference you've pointed out. as i've said in the article, it's arguable whether tests and odi's can be moulded into a league format. how things will turn out i don't know, but my guess is that ODIs will die out and tests will become fewer.
bisht, another pointer is how little we remember of what happened in tennis or soccer at the olympics compared to say wimbledon or the euro cup. so putting cricket in there, although justified, makes little difference to the growth of the game.
buzzz, yes the promoters of icl have a stake in dna. this is the first out of about 100 posts on this blog so far that mentions icl. so, no this is not a "pro icl thing". the post was about the league model taking centrestage. i have no idea what icl's agenda is, but the fact is it took private enterprise to wake up a sleeping bcci which then came up with a parallel league.
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