Desh Gaurav Sekhi - Not Out!: The Incredible Story of The Indian Premier League

T he Indian Premier League (IPL) is Indias best known sports commodity. Some might call it infamous. In fact, former Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar claims that three banned players of Rajasthan RoyalsS. Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandilaarrested in the 2013 spot-fixing case were linked to Dawood Ibrahim via syndicates and bookies. However, the IPL has transcended sports or even current affairs and it is embedded in the Indian social system, a replication of our cultureone that embodies all that we as Indians either hold dear or choose to shun. Today it has both evolved and regressed in a myriad of ways, almost unrecognizable from what was expected of it in 2007 when it stormed the collective Indian psyche. By the time IPLs ninth season comes around in 2016, much should have changed about it, but probably may not have.

The IPL has taken all of Indian society, thrown it into a blender, shaken it with some olives, and served it as a heady cocktail of intrigue, sport, games, controversy and general entertainment. If one looks at the whos who of Indian culture and society, be it from Bollywood, corporate India or the political diaspora, the IPL has been inclusive despite being exclusive. This has had its pros as well as its cons. By mixing different flavours of society, the IPL has made cricket even more entertaining than a typical Bollywood blockbuster, and its general entertainment appeal has been unparalleled. But with all the success, the IPL has had more controversy than its fair share, in a relatively short span of eight years. It has been an equal opportunity publicity juggernaut and scandal allocator. Sold to investors, sponsors and the general public as the total package, the IPL did initially meet the lofty expectations it set for itself. However, the accompanying churn in the administration, governance and on-field play made it a pariah in the eyes of many. Put simply, the IPL is an entity that is fashionable to dislike, but at the same time, is a regrettable necessity for Indian society. Its a necessity because it embraces so much of Indian culture that it is now synonymous with it. Its a regrettable necessity because it has been stature-blind in its ability to jilt careers, cause scandal and disrupt careers. Even its promoter, Lalit Modi, has seen some of the highest highs, and the deepest valleys in large part due to his association with the IPL. It is stature-blind because it has impacted the reputation of rising star politicians, put its stakeholders personal matters into the public domain, killed the professional careers of talented cricketers, and brought scrutiny to the affairs of its administrators and investors alike. It has its supporters and its detractors, but on one point you can be sure that they all agreethe IPL is larger than life, and twice as loud. It is too popular to just be a fad, and has too many legitimate corporates investing in it to simply be labelled a racket.

So given the immense footprint of the IPL, the only obstacle in its way was itself, and as frequently happens, it has managed to trip itself up numerous times in the last few years, to the extent that it is now the focal point of a Supreme Courtappointed committee. Some of its franchises have been suspended, a few terminated, and its erstwhile administrator (Lalit Modi) and some of its team owners (including the Kolkata Knight RidersKKR) have kept the Enforcement Directorate (ED) quite busy scrutinizing its activities. There is a perceived credibility gap with regard to this league; its flamboyant image and its creation of a parallel universe where money solves everything, and bigger is always greater, have put many people off. Not that its ratings or overall popularity has been shaken, but the IPL remains as much of interest for its off-field offerings as it does for the on-field sport. Im not sure thats the best starting or selling point for a professional sports league, but with so many different avenues of revenue available to the league, its unsurprising that the changes until recently have been few and mostly symptom-based solutions to manage the problems, not prevent or control them. Not everyone has found unqualified success within the IPL, and quite a few of its erstwhile sponsors and investors are no longer affiliated with it, for reasons that may or may not be the fault of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or the IPL. For now, lets look at the IPL in its present shape, and how it got to this point.

In 2015, the IPL was at the centre of numerous litigations, and more importantly, of judicial intervention by no less an authority than the Supreme Court of India. The powers that be of the BCCI have been admonished and even warned by the court which has appointed two committees to look into the affairs of the IPL and the cricket board itselfthe Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee in 2013 and then the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee in 2015. Little however has changed in the several years that the IPL has held centre stage. In many ways, the IPL is still a nascent leagueafter all, eight years in the life of a professional sport entity isnt a lot. What has changed for the BCCI and therefore the IPL in recent years is that cricket in India has lost its aura of invincibilityand credibility to a large extentdespite its commercial might and overall popularity with the majority of Indias populace. Cricket is the only sport in the world where the nucleus lies in India, and with the clout of almost a billion people supporting every ball bowled, boundary hit, or catch made, the power of Indian cricket is inarguable, unmistakable and non-negotiable. The IPL was meant to showcase the BCCIs overall dominance and project India as the centre of the world in cricket philosophy.

By now, the IPL should have had and exploited the massive first-mover advantage. It should have consolidated and optimized the revenue verticals that a tournament of this magnitude enjoys. The BCCI should have extended the reach of the IPL by adopting a top-down model where year-round visibility and the development of infrastructure, talent and commercial activity in T20 cricket should have been the norm. It should have accepted in 2008 itself that the only way forward for a global cricket property such as the IPL would be through emulating and initiating best industry practices of established professional sports leagues from which it had copied the glint- and glamour-driven attributes. It should have striven to ensure that the IPL was insulated from questionable practices/ownership of teams; and that its participants were properly oriented and educated on basic aspects of ethics, integrity and business dealings. Above all, the BCCI should have ensured that the IPL was operated as a professionally run organization with an accountable profit-making directive, independent in every way from the overarching interference of itself and its officials.