BCCI Needs to Solve the Club versus Country Debate Because IPL is their Brainchild

There was always the danger of something as seemingly extravagant as the IPL to implode. When Lalit Modi flaunted the IPL, there was a sense of feeling that the IPL was being billed as the greatest thing to have happened for cricket although the only thing that seemed to matter was the financial bottom line. Now the BCCI needs to weigh how its blessing is to be viewed because they have encouraged the club format with the deliberate inclusion of the players themselves.

suresh raina mahendra singh dhoni csk

It would be hard to see any Indian cricketer miss out on the IPL because either it gives the established cricketers an opportunity make money quickly or it gives those players on the fringe or further back the opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

It would be well for the BCCI and the IPL governing council to say that no Indian cricketer has been forced to participate in the cash rich Twenty20 venture, the fact of the matter is that the IPL is dependent on its star players, as are the IPL franchisee, in raising the profile of teams as well as the tournament itself.

After all one of the biggest factors against the Indian Cricket League - the ICL - was that the 'rebel' Twenty20 league lacked players and certificate from the mainstream. Without the Indian cricketers, the fate of the IPL is likely to suffer similar consequences which is why the BCCI is dependent on the players continuing to play to ensure that it rakes in the profits that have spilled over not only in the name of development but also, to benefit and in some cases, turn into a lustful greed for green for some of the game's leading administrators.

For the players, playing is imperative not only from the perspective of the BCCI's interest but in their own interests because it affords them a lifestyle and standard of living previously unseen for such a large contingent of cricketers, many of whom have not received the India cap and may never either.

With the kind of circumstances in which the IPL was envisioned, the ultimate goal has not always been the development of the player or the game but rather the commercial exploitation of a sport that was already been milked. With the introduction of new bosses in the IPL franchisees, the game has developed into a kind of seriousness that the cricketers have realized is something they will have to take in their stride if they are to keep the BCCI happy as well as their IPL franchisee owners.

In the case of someone like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he is answerable to the future BCCI President, N. Srinivasan, who is on the same board that decides Dhoni needs rest but wants him to captain the Chennai Super Kings, in whom N. Srinivasan holds an ownership stake. So, the West Indies series can be sacrificed in the name of rest, but not seventeen matches for Dhoni in the IPL 4.

Unless the BCCI can restrain itself from going after the moolah and set rules that will restrict players to a certain amount of workload if participating in the IPL as well as take personal responsibility to ensure that tours are not arranged ad hoc when eying a commercial venture and that there is sufficient spacing of tours and tournaments such as the IPL and that games do not become meaningless with the increase in numbers, problems like these are simply the tip of the iceberg that would weaken the structure that was the business model not three years ago.