Way back in 2003, Montreal Expos, the Canadian-based Major League Baseball team, played 22 of their home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they drew over a million fans for the first time since 1997. But the next year the MLB relocated the franchise to Washington DC, where the team became the Washington Nationals.
Of course, the IPL is not merely a domestic tournament. It is a life-altering phenomenon in cricket. It is domestic only in the sense that it is controlled by the BCCI, which also benefits the most from it; but it has felt like an unstoppable force, with the power to affect every aspect of international cricket. In so many ways, it already has. And that's why the attention of the cricket world has been riveted on the discussions, or rather the lack of them, between the IPL's organisers and the Indian government over the security arrangements.
On the face of it, the relocation is a huge setback for the IPL. It was a tournament founded on the concept of City Loyalties, and the finest aspect of the first season, apart from the quality of the cricket, was the response it generated from local fans. The money was made from television, but the real success of the tournament was felt in the stands. It was impossible to watch a game in the stadium and not be infected with the new kind of fervor and enjoyment these games engendered. Taking the games away would be to deny them their natural habitat.
How can games that are held at Durban or Johannesburg feel like the Indian Premier League? Would that not reduce the whole thing to another soulless event held solely for the benefit of a television audience?
At the same time, the organisers were left with no choice. There was no other space for the tournament in the international calendar, and the cost of not holding it was immense. But with the government refusing to provide a categorical assurance about security, and in fact giving every indication that it would prefer the tournament to be postponed, the risk of going ahead with it in India as scheduled was even greater.
It can be argued that the organizers were either blasé or lethargic in dealing with the situation. The Mumbai attacks should have been warning enough, and that the elections were to be held in April-May 2009 had been known for months. Of course, the recent attack on Sri Lankan cricketers brought about the chilling realization that cricket was no longer beyond the pale of terrorism, and forced a reassessment of the situation, but the feeling persists still that the IPL's coordination with the government agencies was at best ham-handed, and at worst clouded by a clash of egos.By no means should it have taken so long to figure out that the tournament could not be held in the first place?
More than anything else, this move will leave cricket pondering the wider implications. As a positive, it might provide a template for, and hasten the process of, Pakistan's home games being played in England or elsewhere. And if the tournament succeeds beyond drawing eyeballs on television, it could end up expanding the IPL's base and providing a tangible alternative for all subcontinent teams in these uncertain times. Even the most loyal Indian supporters will agree that these parts are far more chaotic and inherently prone to security lapses than the developed nations. The bombings in London in 2005 were an exception.
But in the end it is as inconceivable to think of cricket without India as it is to imagine India without cricket. Not only is India cricket's economic powerhouse, but despite all the flaws of its administrators and the excesses of its fans, nowhere else is the game more alive, more vibrant, and followed more passionately. The IPL happened to get its timing wrong, but for its own sake, cricket must must return home.
Aditya_J
No comments:
Post a Comment