IPL is in trouble if players take it as a means to life?s riches rather than a platform for achieving excellence

With another season of IPL round the corner, this year it will be important not just for the league, but also how the players, the core constituent of the tournament, look at the competition. With the chance of making a fast buck more than palpable, there is always the temptation of looking at the tournament as a means to life?s riches rather than a platform for achieving excellence. And it is this choice, more than anything, which is going to determine the future of brand IPL.

In their essence the IPL and the Ranji Trophy are the same. Both are domestic competitions organised by the BCCI, both have the potential to open doors to the Indian national team and both are platforms for serious cricket to be played. While the IPL has a lot many more add-on features, its monetary value and entertainment quotient being the two foremost, its success in the past can largely be attributed to the intensity of cricket played over a seven-week period.

For those players, who look at the IPL as a new lifeline, it is important to treat it as a competition that helps showcase their cricketing talents. The opportunity to play with some of the best players in the world, train with the best support staff and the chance to be visible should inspire them to give more than their best for their franchises. Not being casual about the tournament is the key. The intensity a player displays on the field will determine how long he survives at the highest level. And the temptations of the IPL, serious distractions for some players, are the biggest obstacles on its path to continued success.

This is not to suggest that opening and closing ceremonies aren?t important for the IPL. Rather, a blockbuster opening ceremony and a perfect round off are central to the success of a mega sports event. The London 2012 opening ceremony, for example, is already one of the most talked about news items in the United Kingdom. But in the period between the opening and closing ceremonies it should be cricket and cricket only that should be the cynosure of all attention.

The frills are just frills and aren?t of any relevance in enhancing the brand value of the IPL. Which franchise puts together the most number of parties or which team boasts of the best array of celebrity supporters may well set alight the Page 3 circuit, but they certainly won?t do much in helping brand IPL grow stronger.

And it is here that the English Premier League serves as an inspiration. First played as the Premiership in 1993, it was founded on the premise that the century-old English football league was fast losing ground to its German and Italian counterparts. England wasn?t doing well internationally and the standard of football was considered inferior to the German Bundesliga or the Italian Serie A. The Premiership addressed this problem with immediate effect and has now overtaken its European counterparts in terms of revenue generation, earning approximately 2,500 billion euros in 2010. The standard of football played at the Premiership and the performance of the Premier League clubs in tournaments like the Champions League has made it the most lucrative football property in the world.

Confronted by the Big Bash League in Australia, the BPL in Bangladesh and the soon to be launched leagues in other parts of the cricketing world, the IPL, it can be surmised, needs to do the same. No more can the IPL stand apart in terms of its entertainment quotient. Rather, it is the quality of cricket on offer that will make it the mother of all T-20 leagues in the world.?

It is an important statistic for the IPL and also Indian cricket that no player has yet cemented his place in the Indian team on the back of good IPL performances. Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja, two players who made the team on the back of good IPL seasons, have not done justice to the opportunities given and have not made the all-rounders slot their own. It will help the tournament?s credibility if players do make the team based on a strong IPL and continue to be consistent at the international level. This will only help prove the tournament?s credentials, very essential going forward. It is time then for some quality T-20 cricket.

The writer is a sport historian