Indian Premier League - 20/20 going to go huge?

[Brett Kay]

Well i didn't even know about this until i went to news.com.au

Indian Premier League a 20/20 comp over 44 days. Huge Money is being put around the place. 110 million to buy the franchise rights, and then another 6 million at the players auction.

I hate to say it, but it is a good idea. However the effect on the traditional game is going to be huge.

If a person is going to get 1.7 million in salary, sponsorship and marketing, over the course of a full year. Or they can get 1.3 million playing for a month and a half. Which would you rather?

Personally the ICC and other Councils taking the hard line stance of if you play for them, you are no longer welcome here. And the ICC saying that there is no place for the IPL to be placed into the current seasons.

We might soon be missing out on seeing our favourite stars play. Not that i am a huge cricket fan.

The IPL is going to start getting into big issues soon though. Especially in regards to player payments. mainly if one team has spent 6 million and another has spent 2.5. Means some teams are just going to buy the win. So hopefully they introduce a salary cap.

Hopefully they also get a farm system a la the US baseball system, to create a steady stream of players.

Either way interesting day for cricket. If the IPL takes off, how hard would it be for other Non Cricket countries to play. Canada, U.S, any European teams. Interesting to say the least.

Brett

[David]

Great for players
Great for India
Great for lots of fans

F*cked for cricket.

[Des]

I don't like it at all.

But I'll watch it, means I can have a few bevvies!

[Matty Norwood]

im so over watching cricket!!!!

[bennymacca]

Firstly, the IPL is an ICC sanctioned (approved) event, although they are not making a special window in the calendar for it. the reason they are not doing this, is the calendar is worked out for 5 years in advance, so changing it is not really an option for another 3 years once this 5 year cycle is worked out.

In competitiion to this, there is a rebel league, the Indian Cricket league. this is completely refused by the ICC and as a result, any players signing up for this have had their contracts terminated. this happened to about 10 pakistani players, as well as some new zealanders like chris cairns, who can never play for their country again.


With the player payments, there was a salary cap in place. Each team could buy star players, and fill the rest of their team with local indian cricketers (state players). each player was auctioned off to the highest bidder, although each team had to spend between 3.5 million and 5 million on player payments. One team only spent 3.1 million, and as a result are getting fined 400K

bear in mind, these dollar values are in USD!!! it is a massive amount of money for not playing much cricket.

i tend to think its good for cricket. Countries like zimbabwe have a lot of talented cricketers, maybe not enough for a whole team, but they have some.

their youngsters also have a lot agaisnt them, because the facilities are really bad in their own countries.

in this IPL system, these players can go into a development squad of one of the teams, where they have access to the best facilities in the world, and get to train against the best players in the world.

this in turn means that they get better, which raises the profile of cricket in their own country, which leads to better facilities etc etc.

the flow-on effects could be really good for the game, if you leave the greedy world players going for the cash out of it, i am all for it.

i can see in the future a system where this is the main form of limited overs cricket with teams all over the world and players playing for their country less often, sort of like soccer do now, where they will play test matches, world cups, and some other majot limited overs tournaments.

what does everyone think about this?

[David]

I thought the ICL was canned ages ago? And that is what prompted the BCC to create the IPL..?

Good luck to the players that make the money. I won't be watching! The teams mean nothing to me.

Indians are different to Australians. We support a team, they tend to support individual players.

If Sachin makes 100 and India lose, the whole stadium goes home happy. If Ponting makes 100 and Australia lose, we go home disappointed.

Quite smart really - they're just filling teams with quality players and everyone's happy.

By the way, I wouldn't call them, greedy.. If their sport can command dollars in revenue, the players must deserve some of that!

[David]

Hmm maybe not ICL - I was thinking of something else?

[David]

Ok I wasn't - it is the ICL - just not banned

[bennymacca]

my understanding is the ICL is a rebel league that is sort of in the background. they are nowhere near the stage to run a tournament yet, but they have signed some people. not sure when its gonna run though

[Ondie J]

Please don't get me started. I've recently had massive debates about this... sure... over beers but massive debates