T20 and its place in world cricket
Mini Kapoor writes in the Indian Express that the fixing scandal can have implications beyond just the Indian league and administrators across the world must own the T20 format if it is to be taken seriously.
ESPNcricinfo staff
22-May-2013
The recent spot-fixing controversy has put many issues within the Indian Premier League into sharp relief, the most important one being how the BCCI and world cricket perceives the tournament and the format. As Mini Kapoor writes in the Indian Express, the fixing scandal can have implications beyond just the Indian league and administrators across the world must own the format if it is to be taken seriously.
As the allegations against Sreesanth have shown, a taint on one format will not necessarily leave the rest of cricket unaffected. A beginning needs to be made of finding ways to collectively own the T20 format, and to do so in a manner that recognises that the IPL is not any old domestic league. In its composition and in the priority that the best cricketers anywhere in the world give it (even if it is for purely monetary reasons), it is not.
Those of us given to holding our noses and dismissing it as a seasonal affliction need to reconsider our disdain. T20 is as much cricket today as Test matches are, and the IPL is its primary competition.