IPL should move away from personality cults
The IPL can only flourish through an institutional framework and not by the cult of personalities, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
The IPL can only flourish through an institutional framework and not by the cult of personalities, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express. He says that the league, in the long-term, will have to learn to survive without the aid of its visionaries. He adds that the league also ought to put franchise and team before the individual, something the growing focus on film stars and celebrities buying a stake in the tournament threatens to undermine.
You can see that at IIM-Ahmedabad where the great Vikram Sarabhai was the visionary. It is as powerful forty five years later. Infosys is headed that way with Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani slowly stepping aside. The IPL has a visionary in Lalit Modi but if it wants to compete with Wimbledon or the English FA or the Augusta Masters it must create strong systems and ease away from personality cults. Modi and Srinivasan cannot oppose each other!
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo