Why I am not watching the IPL

One, because I am a cricket fan. Two because it sucks.  Big time. More so, with every progressing season. It represents everything that is wrong and right with India today. It mirrors fairly accurately the state of the Indian society, its polity. A country caught in the middle yet with its own very well defined extremities. Of the rich and the poor, of IPL and Hockey Leagues, new money and old crassness, new faces and the same behind the scenes people, new formats; same motives.

The genesis of the IPL lies not in some puritan endeavour to extend the reach of the sport or to help poor fast bowlers from Meerut. It lies in sheer Gordon Gekkoesque greed of the people who run cricket. From the very beginning the emphasis has been to maximize profits. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong in expecting a healthy return on equity and diversification of portfolios by the corporate czars who ‘own’ the many teams. But there is a lot which is wrong with single-mindedness of these people to expect a health return on equity and diversification of portfolios. The sport is just a means for their never-going-to-be-met-in-this-lifetime-ends. Cricket is just the vehicle for their trip into capitalist heaven.

What has happened in the process is that the sport in its truest form and the very essence of cricket has died. There is a reason why Americans don’t play cricket, its very nature repulses capitalists. What game played for 5 days on a stretch is going to be profitable? And therein lays the cause for my immense contempt for the IPL. The 20-20 format is still tolerable in small dosages, but you throw in TV stars anchoring shows, players being auctioned, slapped around and plastered across our screens every 6 balls, and you’ve taken the fun out of sport. It stops being a game, it transforms into a business plan. And then expansion plans kick in, like a new McDonalds opening up every month. It is just damn good business.

The sheer incompetence that mars so many aspects of Indian politics & business; extends to the IPL as well. Not surprisingly it is owned by the same people who run major political parties and conglomerates (the two increasingly becoming the same) and managed by their couldn’t-do-anything-on-their-own kids/wives. The owners of the various franchisees and their managements operate profit making business units; not teams. Everything is about raking in as much moolah as possible, performance be damned. This vaudeville that has emerged from the unholy mix of everything crass; sadly might be fit for a people collectively dumbing down; looking for quick-fix entertainment. But it does not make it right, in my view. While there are a few people who are genuinely interested in the cricket that is being played, for most it is an evening out, an alternate source of entertainment.

And while there is nothing wrong with it if people like it so, it is hurting the sport. And while evolution is inevitable, it is sad to see the game change in this manner. And while people might like Katy Perry, it makes me cringe when she asks Sachin Tendulkar, “so what position do you play”, because to her pink wig covered brain; soccer and cricket are the same.