I've got nothing against the players for choosing IPL over International cricket. I'd probably do the same thing in their position.
Where I'm coming from is it's a shame that the modern game has gone in this direction where a form of domestic cricket gets higher bidding over international cricket and it's scary where it's going to go next.
Its simple James.
If corporates start paying six figure salaries to delivery boys and senior executives are paid in four figures what jobs will people apply for?
Not just that. If high school drop outs are eligible for those six digit salaries why would the next generation want to slog in colleges and then after graduation another three years or more in management schools and more.
What IPL decided to pay to its players was not just obscene amounts in relation to what was expected from them, it was completely not required. They would have got the players they wanted for handsome but much lower amounts. But Mr Modi and his ilk wanted to make a big bang. He thought (and he may well be right) that a show that pays in millions and not just tens of thousands is going to appeal to the public as something special even before the first ball was bowled. Those ridiculous amounts were being paid not to attract those players but to dazzle the public out of their skins.
The fact that he did do exactly that is not surprising for the public ( the new converts he is trying to bring) has for quite some time shown that the razzle dazzle is all that counts for them. Its the fast food crowd. They far outnumber the connoisseurs and Mr. Modi and his ilk are looking at quantity in everything and quality be damned.
That Test cricket (and first class cricket too) would be the first casualty was so obvious from the very beginning but we are so blinded by the dazzling lights, we cant see beyond the bikinis of the cheer leaders, the banging of the drums and the screaming of the crowds as sixes rain, even from atrocious mis-hits, across shrinking boundaries.
Try auctioning the NASA scientists for ten million dollars each per month to work on developing toys for infants and see what happens to America's space/science programs.
Why was it so difficult to anticipate?
When Packer attracted the cricketers in the 70's he was a 'rogue' operator outside the system. ICC could have both boycotted him and paid the players the kind of money they deserved.
Today their is no rogue operator. One of ICC's major constituents has decided that they will decide how to run the game and they have decided to do it in a manner that ICC cant even imagine trying to match them. On top of that, being a part of ICC they can't even be termed as a rogue operator.
ICC, instead of realising the danger that lurked for the game in the entire IPL episode, tried to see only how they too could "wash their hands in the flowing Ganges" of green backs.
Majority of the opinion makers of the game, writers, commentators, former cricketing greats found ways to hitch on to the band wagon and Mr Modi obliged. Now we cant even hear a descenting voice.
Its people like Sunil Gavaskar who should have been speaking against this 'tamasha' but how can he.
The rot runs deep and unless the bull is taken by the horn, starting yesterday, cricket is in for a shock from which may not ever recover. Packer is dead and Modi will die one day but he will have made his billions and thats what counts with him. It is for the mandarins who run the ICC who have to decide what matters for them. If it is not the long term interest of the game. We may all just give up.
