Column

The floodlights conking out on Friday when the very first match was delicately placed may have been a bit of a party-pooper, but the spectacular start to the second season - with an extra team, enhanced prize money and a burgeoning global television audience - suggests that the Indian Cricket League is not going to be defused as easily as its detractors may have anticipated.

Several stories leading up to the tournament had suggested that the ICL was unsustainable and would fizzle out. It hasn’t. Subhash Chandra, chairman of Essel Group which has promoted the ICL, was candid in his admission at the pre-tournament banquet for the teams that there were still problems to be licked, but was characteristically feisty in expressing that he was now going raise the ante for the League to be accepted by the establishment — at the ICC and BCCI levels both.

Earlier this month he met the ICC chief, David Morgan, to apprise him of the ambition and purpose of the League, and says he will now even talk to the outgoing BCCI president (and president-elect of the ICC), Sharad Pawar, to ensure a level-playing field for his League and the removal of the ban on players contracted to him.

Senior ICL officials contend that there have been direct efforts from senior BCCI officials to strangulate the League — by blocking any sponsorship/advertising money coming to them. Obviously, the tactic is to drain out the financial resources from — and available — to the League. At the player level, however, a ban-all strategy could become a problem for the establishment, in India and elsewhere.

Already, the interim Sri Lankan board had revoked the ban on the ICL players. Also, English counties last season told the establishment to take a walk and fielded ICL players. It is pertinent to note too that the powerful Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) has also supported the ICL. Indeed, no cricketer past or present and from any country, or even from the IPL, has decried the ICL which just about sums up player sentiment.

The fact that Sunil Gavaskar remains one of the pillars of Indian cricket while his son Rohan plays in the ICL is more a reality check and less a simple irony of life. Like Rohan, there are several young players in India and across the world who seek an opportunity to express their talent, earn livelihood, and see no real ethical dilemma in choosing the ICL for this purpose.

A host of Bangladesh players have joined the League this year, and one learns that there are several from the domestic circuit in Pakistan who are wanting to do the same. Fact is there are simply too many young cricketers in the sub-continent — and gradually elsewhere — willing to showcase their skills and unwilling to wait forever. This is an issue that needs to be tackled with far-sighted vision in which empathy for the players is paramount.

If that becomes the case, a solution may be as difficult as it seems now.