Lust for money will only ruin cricket
After a controversy-ridden sojourn of Australia, Indian cricket lovers were happy to watch the three-Test series against South Africa. A triple-century by Virender Sehwag, South Africa's victory in Ahmedabad and India's comeback in Kanpur... the series was so lively except the last two days of the first Test in Chennai. There was much talk about the wickets, mind games played by coaches and the seniors of both teams. But never was the spirit of the game at stake. Rather, it brought glory back to the game.
The onset of the Indian summer has been pleasant. There is promise of more excitement with the one-and-half-month long Indian Premier League, Asia Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and so on. With a packed Future Tours Programme, it is time for cricket lovers to rejoice. But suddenly, the organisers of the cash-rich IPL are out to play spoilsport with certain restrictions on coverage of the tournament by media organisations. To the dismay of all, a boycott of the event by media loomed large just a couple of days before its commencement. The print medium came out in protest, followed by the electronic media and now, websites.
IPL restricts use of images from venues and real time coverage of matches. A number of restrictions on usage of news clippings will kill the excitement. One may watch the matches on a particular TV channel with telecast rights. But the matches are to be played during evenings when most people in India would be commuting back from work. Also, watching matches on TV at workplaces is the last thing to suggest. In such a scenario, people normally resort to websites to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, websites with the largest cricket audience worldwide, are the worst victims of the IPL restrictions. But the IPL officials do not care for people who would like to enjoy the game. After all, they are here to make money, not to entertain cricket lovers. At least that does not seem to be on their agenda, for now.
It was the media which had created a hype about IPL. And today, they have fallen prey to the lust for money of the game's administrators. IPL argues these restrictions are imposed to safeguard the commercial interests of the web firm that has secured the rights. At the time of writing, the IPL had failed to announce the name of the website with just two days to go. The only clue IPL provided was that it is a web firm from North America. Is it the job of the lovers of the game to find out where they can come to know about their favourite sport, not of the game's administrators?
What a sorry state of affairs! People who do not have DTH connections with Tata Sky or who cannot afford to pay extra money to access Neo Sport were deprived of watching the recent India-South Africa Test series. Watching cricket, the most popular game in India, is considered to be a privilege now! The common man of this cricket-crazy nation has no right to watch his favourite stars in action. And the Board of Control for Cricket in India is busy garnering money, not willing to leave even an inch where revenue can be generated.
After all, the BCCI is a non-profit making body. Top officials claim to work free of cost for the organisation. If that is true, why are they so crazy about making money for the Board at the cost of depriving a majority of people from following the game? Do the game's self-claimed messiahs think this is a way to improve the game or its popularity? While the same bunch of people claims to have gone all out to expand cricket to other countries, they clip the wings of websites who are supposed to be the only medium to spread the game where it is not so popular.
Making money is not the only job for custodians of the game, certainly not at the cost of the game itself. It is time for cricket administrators to wake up to certain realities. Otherwise, cricket will be reduced to what hockey is.