Whipping horse!

By Rajadhyax

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is constantly in the news. It is praised for the amount of money involved, the TV viewers it attracts, the stars it makes, the glamour that follows the cricket and all the excitement that surrounds the event. Majority of people praise the effort of holding such a mega event amidst a headline hungry media and destruction hungry threat of militancy. But the IPL has its own critics as well. Reasonable criticism is welcome too since it gives IPL the chance to improve next season. But an undesirable tendency seems to be gathering slight momentum and that is of making IPL the ‘whipping horse’ where people scarcely oriented in cricket make sweeping, unreasonable statements about the alleged ills of the league. These people just want a punching bag no matter how unjustified their comments may be. So here are some ‘gems’ from the mouths of those who spew venom at the IPL without sufficient rhyme or reason.

1] IPL is just money making: There are some people who think the big event is only a money making device. At such a time they conveniently forget that they are themselves in awe of the quality of cricket they get to see. They forget the spectacular catches, the towering sixes, the miserly bowling performances, the flying sticks, the sliding stops, the screaming fours and everything that is called great cricket which they saw in IPL. Besides, they also forget that in these days when people are choosy, poor cricket would not have become famous like IPL.

2] All IPL matches are fixed: Those who say this always say it after the completion of the match, having seen the results. And those few fools who say it before the match are invariably proven to be wrong. The best examples were when people said Yusuf Pathan will throw his wicket in this match and he scored a big hundred while someone said Matty Hayden will fail in a certain match where he scored that brilliant 93. So let’s discard these views as baseless and malicious charges like whistles in thin air.

3] IPL is tiring the players: Some people believe that cricketers’ schedules have become too tight and players are getting too tired due to the IPL. The fact is players’ schedules became tight since 1985-86. That is more or less the time since when ODIs became TV hits, test matches turned more exciting as an effect of ODIs and more cricket started to get played. The great Sunny Gavaskar was the earliest captain to complain that players are getting too tired and getting very little rest. Folks, that was over 20 years before IPL started! So whoever says that players are tiring due to IPL knows pretty little about ICC time tables of the last two decades.

4] Players are becoming money minded due to IPL: Like the above comments, players started getting more money since the middle of 1980s in most countries. Cricket started grabbing more TRPs. That attracted more corporates, sponsorships, glamour and money. Money does not sway every player away from the game. Players are aware that this money will come as long as they are performing well on the ground. Tennis, golf, soccer and basketball started to attract funds and glamour much before cricket but these sports have not been adversely affected by the inflow of funds. So why are we worried that money will spoil cricket? Or is it just a case of envy?

5] IPL is just a one-man-show: Castigating the Convenor Lalit Modi, some people say that IPL is just a one-man-show. Think for a moment, can a mega event, involving international cricketers, at the scale of a world cup, spread across the length and breadth of a sub-continental country, covered by the world media be conducted by the will of one man. There is a team of hundreds that is involved in the event management. From scorers, umpires, ground staff and cameramen to PR guys, accountants, stewards, commentators, chefs, bodyguards and general managers, everyone has a role to play. Everybody is contributing enormously to make the event a big success. Everyone is important in this management effort.

These were some critical gems in the IPL story. Then there are sundry allegations that all IPL teams are Income Tax evaders (no such evidence is available) or that teams are using havala money or that IPL is meant only for the retired stars or that IPL parties are just a flow of alchohol or that IPL puts excess pressure on TV channels and so on and so forth. Someone even said that because security forces are involved in IPL, militants will have a free hand to strike other targets at will. By that yard stick all major events of all sports and entertainment should be stopped in India. In that case are we not playing into the hands of the militants and giving them exactly what they want?

So what next now? How about alleging that jihadi militancy is due to IPL? Or how about stating that global warming is due to IPL? Or may be, domestic violence is due to IPL? Another option could be, Indian poverty is due to IPL?..... Here is one more, is IPL causing the volcano in Iceland? Oh come on, folks, be reasonable. Criticise IPL by all means if you want but not without reason.

Or for Heaven’s sake, learn to praise things that are worthy of praise; simple!