Can the IPL reform itself?
In the Telegraph , Mukul Kesavan writes that he has little hope that the IPL will clean up its act and enumerates arguments to support his contention that the tournament, which is too firmly steeped in commercialisation, is beyond redemption.
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
In the Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan writes that he has little hope that the IPL will clean up its act and enumerates arguments to support his contention that the tournament, which is too firmly steeped in commercialisation, is beyond redemption.
But once you define Twenty20 cricket and the IPL as a form of showbiz — the cheerleaders, the gold-trim uniforms, the filmstar owners, the mid-over commercials, the commercial crassness of the strategic time-out, the stadiums wall-papered with advertising — its main justification becomes the money that makes it a gilded marvel. When the buzz about a game becomes its success in monetizing everything from post-match parties (where guests pay 40,000 rupees a pop to mingle with tired players) to sponsored sixes, what you’re seeing is cricket’s transformation from one sort of heavenly body into another: from a sun that burns with its own fire to a planet that preens in the reflected glory of money.
David Bond, on the other hand, has hope that the organisers will eventually clean up the mess. He writes in bbc.co.uk that while IPL-gate is far from over, the tournament is here to stay.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo