By Gulu Ezekiel
The BCCI needs to get its priorities right. Is it planning to start a second IPL season (along with the Champions League) or is it in the business of nurturing and building up the national squad for international cricket?
It is currently caught between two stools and the fall-out is the messy Virender Sehwag affair.
It is a pity that captain MS Dhoni has been left holding the baby while the BCCI had no business allowing a half-fit player to travel with the team, leading to all sorts of rumours.
But it should be pretty obvious by now that players are picking up injuries during the IPL or playing in the league while half-fit in order to fulfill contractual obligations to their employees—which in the case of the IPL is not the BCCI but corporate houses.
This has been the case both with Sehwag and also Zaheer Khan who played in India’s opening match against Bangladesh despite not being fully fit.
Things are even direr for England with Kevin Pietersen carrying on till the Ashes with pain killing injections while there is a cloud over Andrew Flintoff’s condition.
Last year Sachin Tendulkar came into the IPL only after the first half was over while nursing a groin strain. This forced him to pull out of two ODI tournaments right after the IPL had ended as he obviously aggravated the injury while on the payroll of his corporate franchise side, the Mumbai Indians.
Since the IPL is apparently a force of nature, the only way out would be to shorten the format into a two-group league-cum-knockout, reducing the schedule from the currently ridiculous six weeks to three or four.
That of course is unlikely to happen. After all, the longer the tournament, the more the viewers and that is where the real money lies.
International cricket, RIP!
No comments:
Post a Comment