Huge money can't compensate for declining players' skills: Bishan Singh Bedi

The numbers are mind-blowing – Rs16,347 crore for Indian Premier League media rights – but I have not been surprised by the humongous money committed to the BCCI in the course of this year, thanks to the transparent tendering process.

The BCCI has sold products close to Rs18,000 crore – Rs 16,347.50 crore from IPL media rights and Rs 1,079 crore from Oppo as team sponsor – besides the Rs 2,597 crore promised by the International Cricket Council.
And, that number can quell a lot of arguments, or so the mandarins would think. Unless they address some key issues, the problems in Indian cricket will not go away with the appearance of such large amounts of money. On the contrary, the infusion of so much money can bring along more problems, I reckon.

Let me share one of my biggest concerns first. If you have been watching Test cricket around the world for some years now, you will agree that the overall standards of cricket have declined quite significantly. The reason is not far to seek – Twenty20 cricket. It is not funny how we are being fed lies that the players' skills have improved and led to rising standards.

We cannot blame IPL alone for that. The Big Bash League in Australia, the Caribbean Premier League in the West Indies, the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in South Africa where the new T20 Global League is shaping up, Pakistan Super League, the Bangladesh Premier League etc., have all played no mean role in T20 steadily gnawing away at the roots of traditional cricket.

Test cricket has been put on a slow-poison diet that teams like Australia, the Windies and Sri Lanka are unable to contain the slide over the last two years. All teams, including India, who have enjoyed a fine run in the past years, are happy to win in their own backyards, in a controlled environment. Yes, T20 cricket will upstage Test cricket sooner than imagined.

This answers a question and raises another. First, it explains why many office-bearers of BCCI and its state units do not want to leave their positions even after a Supreme Court order has mandated it to make some basic constitution amendments that will rule them out. Second, it makes us wonder why such a transparent process had not been put in place 10 years ago.

Had it not been for the Justice Lodha Committee and the SC, much of this would have been splurged on non-essential items.

Where will the money go? 

Cricketers who are a part of the IPL extravaganza will go laughing to their banks but what happens to the kids at the tail-end of the queue?

It matters little to a kid, dreaming of playing for India, that the IPL media rights deal is worth Rs 3,270 crore each year. It will mean a lot to them if state associations curb the mushroom growth of private academies by setting up official academies and indoor facilities across their respective states so that talent can be groomed right and without the cricketers paying through their noses.

Instead of focusing on enhancing grass-root facilities, state associations will want to build new stadia. And, we just have to glance at the recent past to find echoes of rampant corruption in most places where new stadia have cropped up or are being built.

Earning such a large amount is one thing but to use it wisely and properly, is quite another. Except for a handful of state associations, most have not been able to even account for the money that has been doled by BCCI. New stadiums have sprouted everywhere, thanks to the subsidy BCCI offers towards construction of stadia.

A second stadium is being sought in Mohali, Punjab. Delhi is home to a horrendous stadium has been built on government land without a proper lease. In Haryana, a stadium has been constructed in a village without any residential facilities in the vicinity.

There are allegations of hundreds of crores of rupees being misappropriated. The basic activity of promoting cricket seems unattractive and mundane to the mandarins of the state associations – and the Board doesn't even ask them questions.

There is no doubt that fans will soon start paying more for sport on the DTH or cable TV services and for products and services that are seeking to ride the IPL dragon. In raising the bar so high by fuelling consumer preferences for entertainment in the shortest format of the game, BCCI is testing the audience interest, patience and its paying capacity.