Pakistan Players in Lurch: Forget Cross Border Peace; This is Cold Blooded Business

Sreelata YellamrazuJan 20 2010

The debates about - should the IPL governing council have even invited the Pakistan cricketers to submit their documents when there has been a perceptible fear that the players may not be available after all?

pak team

From extravagant spenders (remember how the Ambani bid for the Mumbai Indians and how Vijay Mallya did not mind splurging on England's Kevin Pietersen though the latter was only available for six games), the IPL franchisees have made a complete turnaround, alright, not complete but rather dramatic.

While they have stretched the distance for the likes of Trinidad and Tobago's Kieron Pollard and New Zealand's Shane Bond, they have shown a stingy purse when it came to the Pakistan cricketers.

And why did they do that? After all, who would not want to watch Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir or young sensation Umar Akmal? But how the times have changed. The franchisees who last year complained about how they missed their Pakistan cricketers are now looking the other way when questioned about them being ignored.

Valid cricket reasons have been well rehearsed, but it still begs the question: When someone like Shilpa Shetty (co owner of the Rajasthan Royals) states that Damien Martyn and Adam Voges were picked on the basis of their captain, Australia's Shane Warne's advice to bolster the batting order, why could not Umar Akmal or Afridi do the same?

Although the franchisee owners were quite straightforward during the brief press conference in between the IPL 3 auction rounds, stating that they were unsure of the availability of the Pakistan cricketers (through visa issues), as the storm gathered dust, the cricket reasons came out perfect to the hilt.

While one could not necessarily argue on the cricketing logic, it seemed like a well synchronized cover up. It appears that irrespective of an informal directive from the IPL itself, the franchisees have taken or not taken the cue about the probability that the Pakistan cricketers could encounter visa problems and therefore, they could see their money go to naught.

Unwilling to take a chance where they splurge frivolously only to have been rendered wingless (that has happened the previous season with the Australian cricketers being only partially available and most like the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting, opting out altogether in IPL 2 or of the Pakistan cricketers who could not make it due to diplomatic deadlock), the franchisees chose to stick to their strategy - fill their 1/2 slots with players they can bank on for the entire IPL 3 season.

With an eye on return on investment, Pakistan cricket, like other matters pertaining to Pakistan, simply did not make business sense to them. Cricket's loss but it is something cricket has been struggling with for sometime now.

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