It is the same old question which comes in different forms presenting itself more in a more challenging way than ever before. It’s the same question as capitalism vs. communism or money vs. patriotism, austerity vs. glamour and many more. We all know the answer to all the questions. if we ask ourselves we are living in this age because we know the answer to these questions as all these lead to the same Darwin's theory of survival for the fittest.
It’s now time for BCCI to answer the same question which has came to it as IPL vs. world T20. After making few(when compared to its potential) quick bucks through IPL now it’s time to look up for the long term strategies. The quick buck has come because of the passion of an Indian feeling proud when we beat strong international sides and become world champions. It was never because of few IPL teams representing few states/places wining with each other with the help of a foreign player or an Indian player who because of money wining a match against his own state but loosing it morally. It will lead to a mentality where after sometime you goes to a state of mind where you actually don't care. All that matters is money and your competition will just be your teammate fighting for the same spot in the team. As long as you are doing better than him you are satisfied. This is what looks the state of the Indian team, where we picked up relative good player leading to a absolute pathetic TEAM INDIA.
Team India’s performance was an absolute disaster in the world cup T20. They never looked comfortable in the field. The bowling was as usual lethargic. Our pace or I should say medium pace battery was down. Spin not doing much on fast tracks. Our batting which is counted as our strength didn’t do much, some batsmen clicked during earlier but loosing the advantage when batting in the death overs. Running between the wickets appeared as if they are shooting for some commercial which no speed and lot of facial expressions. Our fielding effort was abysmal, dropping the catches like newbies which might have come for the training.
All this is after BCCI was claiming that IPL has improved the T20 game for India as they have got more exposure and practice. We are getting new talents(wonder where were the chosen ones). But after the Indian performance I don’t think so BCCI has much to say or more appropriately put, there not much an Indian can hear. But they still can’t accept, that the performance could be affected due to long and tiring season of IPL and after parties. They still deny that after parties were causing any problem and that they didn’t affect players health, fitness and routine in anyway. It is pretty obvious that there is no long term planning. Its aim is few rating points quickly which will mean more money to the current stake holders. Who cares about the future, they will not be on the chair bearing the burden. And they also have few standard tricks under their disposal to address the nations anger which includes sacking the coach, few new coaches and changing captains.
BCCI should understand that even if we want to promote IPL as best sporting event the way to achieve this still goes through making a best TEAM INDIA in every form of the game. IPL can only be a byproduct of cricket in India. This is the right time to get our vision clear, we need to have our strategies and priority right. May be make IPL an once occurring event every two years, complementary to T20 world cup. Have a separate team or at least few specialists for each format. Players selected for international events should have a camp for at least for a month to regain the fitness and co-ordination. It should be ensured that payments to the players should be maximum for playing for TEAM INDIA instead of playing for some franchise.Incentives should be given to the players opting out of IPL for an international tournament.
If no steps taken soon, it would it also will meet a fate like ICL, which obviously failed because their players were not allowed in team India. People didn’t bond as much with players not playing for the national side. So in order to save IPL and inflow of few quick bucks save TEAM INDIA. Otherwise, as Navjot Singh Siddhu might say,
“ money has wings my friend and it flies even faster when running away”
