Future of Cricket

When we talk about football today, most people will think of the English Premier League or the UEFA Champions League. If you ask someone which is his favourite team, most likely he will say Manchester United or Real Madrid or some other European club name. Football today is synonymous with club football. International matches are once in 4 year rituals like the FIFA world cup or the Euro Cup. Of course there are international friendlies and Olympic qualifiers that happen once n a while. But even in these matches, one rarely sees top international players, since they are occupied with more important club commitments. For football fans, its all about club allegiances. Many an Englishman will adore Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo, but will loathe a Steven Gerrard who plays for a rival club. Club allegiance/rivalry is much more prominent today rather than nationalistic patriotism which is put on display once every 4 years.

 

For us cricket fans, thankfully the situation is quite different. Or is it?

Well, most of us Indians still identify our favourite team with the colour Blue. And most Australians cheer for the Baggy Green. We all love to watch Hayden vs Zaheer, Bhajji vs Symonds or Yuvraj vs Shoaib encounters on the field. But one wonders for how long. The IPL today is a 6 week annual tournament. Come year 2015. Imagine that the IPL is held over 40 weeks with 15 teams across India. Imagine similar leagues being played in England, Australia, Sharjah and South Africa. To add to this, we will have the so called Champions League, in which top teams from these elite clubs will compete to decide who is the best in the world. Of course, we will still have the World Cup and maybe even the Champions Trophy. After all, they are a once in 4 year commitment and it will give cricketers a chance to play for their country and realize their dream.

 

If you think that the situation I’ve described above is far fetched, then think again. Almost every decision in this world is taken based on economic logic. Every cricket board worth its salt, will take that course of action which is most profitable to itself. Over the past 2 years, it has become clear that 20-20 cricket is the most marketable form of cricket. Clearly it is the future. And the great Lalit Modi has proved that profits can be maximized by adopting the private club franchisee route. The IPL model is already a grand success with all involved making money and the audience is also apparently overjoyed. TV advertisement rates are the highest for T-20 than for any other format. Stadium tickets are equal to, if not higher than ODI matches, even for IPL (which is technically club cricket). Many IPL franchisees have made profits in the first year itself and all teams are expected to make profits from the 3^rd year onwards. Above all, the BCCI’s coffers are overflowing. All this, just from a 6 week tournament making its debut.

 

It is only a matter of time before people forget the Ashes, Border-Gavaskar and India-Pakistan series and instead talk about Chennai Super Kings Vs Bangalore Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians. Cricket as we know today will not exist 10 years down the line. Our children will know and follow cricket the way football is followed today. Is there a way to prevent this? I wish there was..

Obamania

Like so many others around the world, I am at awe with Barack Obama. Not least by his oratorical skills. This man is amazing. He’s gifted in his speech, his intelligence, his courage and of course his charisma. I haven’t watched much of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi or Winston Churchill tapes. But Barack Obama could be remembered as one of the modern political greats and compared with these yesteryear greats in the years to come. The funny thing is, Obama has only just won the election. He has only just entered the stage, but the applause from the crowd would seem to suggest that the play has reached the climax. At the risk of repeating what the media all over the world is saying, there is an ENORMOUS amount of hope pinned on Barack Obama. Looking at people’s expressions during his victory speech, one wonders how can so many people have so much hope from one man? And how can one man possibly meet the expectations of so many? He is not Jesus Christ. He is only a political leader of a less than perfect democracy. Yet, even Obama isn’t doing anything to play down the expectations. In his victory speech he only underscored these hopes. For the sake of the American people and for Obama himself, I hope he can meet a great deal of these expectations. But honestly speaking, I have no idea how he can do that. Meeting expectations in good times is difficult enough. But making people happy in these tough times… oh boy… Good Luck Mr. Obama!

What’s more interesting is that, perhaps for the first time, almost all nations of the world seem to be rejoicing an American president elect. Obama should partly thank George Bush for this international goodwill that he’s receiving. Well, after eight years of bull shit, the world would’ve been sure that things couldn’t get any worse in the White House.

The world in general needed an honest and intelligent leader in these turbulent times. Obama will be the right guy to create “win-win’ situations for everyone. From an Indian perspective, I think the Indo –US Nuke deal might suffer. This deal, at a higher level smells of American double standards and hypocrisy. Unlike some opinions, I believe the outsourcing industry will remain unscathed. Obama is smart enough to understand its economic logic. And economic logic always wins over politics.

Having seen the drama unfold over the last several months, I hope to see over the next 4 years, if one man can change America and the world for the better. I hope to see peace in Afghanistan and in the middle east. I hope to see an end to American political hypocrisy. I hope to see real economic and social prosperity. Am I audacious with my hope? Well, then so shall I!

Just before concluding, I was thinking who could be the best analogy for Obama. I could think of no one better than Rajnikanth. When all the chips are down and the world is at the mercy of the bad guys, all it takes to restore things is one man- Rajni, the Superstar. In the current scheme of things, people’s expectations from Obama is very similar to what the audience expects from Rajnikanth when he enters a scene. And Rajni never fails his fans!!