Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 10 December 2007 / 1

Andrew Hughes explains the politics behind the Indian Cricket League and tells us us why it will ultimately fail as a long-term project

Some thought it would never get off the ground but on 30th November at the Panchkula Stadium, Chandigargh, the opening ceremony of the Indian Cricket League took place against the magnificent backdrop of the Himalayas. The first match saw the Chandigargh Lions triumph over the Delhi Jets by 8 runs. The match was exciting enough and the crowd suitably entertained. But though this modest provincial ground was full, gate revenue is not what this tournament is about. The size of the TV audience is all that matters.

Like World Series Cricket before it, the ICL is the product of a wrangle over television rights with tycoon Subhash Chandra in the Kerry Packer role. When his Zee TV found that making the highest bid didn't mean they were entitled to the rights to televise Indian cricket (ECB please take note) he began to plot his revenge. The road to the Panchkula Stadium has been a rocky one, but Chandra, with the billions of the Essel Media Group behind him has been able to bulldoze his way through every roadblock, securing the services of a handful of retired or out of favour foreigners and a host of domestic players, despite the threats of lifetime bans from some national cricket boards and the Board of Control for Cricket in India's less than subtle attempts to strangle the fledgling tournament.

By setting up a world-class tournament in India and broadcasting it worldwide, Chandra is aiming a blow at the credibility of the BCCI and its right to run Indian cricket. If the ICL proves successful, the intention is to play fifty over and even five-day games. He is effectively trying to position himself as the most powerful man in Indian cricket, to either wrest power from the BCCI or force them to accede to his demands.

He won't succeed. For one thing, he hasn't been able to attract the top players for the ICL and won't for the longer formats either. Partly thanks to the efforts of Kerry Packer, Test cricketers nowadays have financial security and absolutely no incentive to throw away their international careers. Without the big names, there is no way such competitions can compete successfully for television audience. And next April, the ICL will face a direct rival in the officially sanctioned Indian Premier League, which will include all the top domestic players and the likes of Warne, McGrath and Mohammed Yousuf. The Premier League will feed into the Twenty20 Champions League next October, comprising teams from England, Australia, South Africa and India. Once all that gets underway, who will be interested in the ICL?

It is odds against therefore that the ICL will last beyond the final on 15th December. The foreign players will simply cash their cheques and move on. But for the Indian players involved, the end of the ICL signals the end of their careers. It is hardly surprising that so many Indian cricketers have jumped at the offer of a yearly wage, top class training facilities and the chance to make a name for themselves. For most Indian players, a career in cricket is a struggle, throughout which many have to hold down full time jobs, with minimal coaching, no reimbursement during periods of injury and no financial security whatsoever. But if Chandra really wanted to address this, there are many ways he could have invested in improvements to the current system. Instead, he has exploited the problems in Indian cricket for his own ends in his personal power struggle with the BCCI. It is to be hoped that the BCCI offers an amnesty to all Indian players involved.

But in the meantime, there is the curiosity value of watching some pretty good players and a couple of greats battle it out in the most dynamic cricket format of all. You can watch all the remaining matches live on Sky Channel 789 and if you fancy a flutter, Betfair are running a market on the tournament winner. At the moment, the Chandigargh Lions top the table but five of the six teams still have a chance to win the tournament, with Brian Lara's Mumbai Superstars the only side out of contention, not the first time Lara has found himself in charge of a bunch of underachievers.

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1. Ottayan | 10 December 2007

   True "Lara has found himself in charge of a bunch of underachievers" but it also reflects his inability to inspire his team - mates.
   

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