Either Ian Botham is still living in his glory days of 1981, or at the age of 58, he has completely lost touch with reality.
He this week took to complaining about the Indian Premier League (IPL) and called on the world's premier domestic T20 competition to be axed.
It’s almost like saying the English Premier League should be scrapped, because the “players are slaves to it”, and prioritise playing for their clubs ahead of their countries.
It was an astonishing attack on the richest cricket tournament in the world, which has changed the face of cricket, and for the better. It comes from someone who has not experienced the IPL first-hand ever, not even as a commentator. And it comes from a man who gave his whole-hearted support to a somewhat similar endeavour from a proven crook, Sir Allen Stanford, even calling the convicted conman “cricket’s new Kerry Packer”.
Let’s see who are complaining about the IPL. The Indian cricket fans do that at very convenient times, like when the national team got thrashed by England recently in the Test series. Any player who is not part of the IPL, may comment adversely, but that is just the ‘sour-grapes’ phenomenon. The cricket purists might cringe, but there are not many of them left.
The fans enjoy it. The networks adore the content. The players have never had it better. Could anyone ever have imagined two cricketers – Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar in this case – in the Forbes 100 richest sportspersons list before the advent of IPL?
Earlier this year, the UAE witnessed first-hand just how powerful the attraction of IPL is. Of the 20 matches played here, 18 were completely sold out. That’s almost unheard of even for a country which regularly attracts the most high-profile players in various world-class sporting events.
I have to agree with Botham that there has been corruption in the IPL, players have been tempted to fix matches and betting is an issue. But what is also clear is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are constantly trying to make sure that these unwanted elements are eliminated.
What Botham has perhaps forgotten is that this year was only the seventh edition of the tournament. While it has several shortcomings, it cannot be denied what it has achieved in such a short period of time is mind-boggling. It has definitely added to the excitement around the game, and most importantly, it has helped cricket evolve with time and add new fans. Each sport is trying its level best to become a talking point of the Millennials, and IPL has done that most effectively for cricket.
And as he himself referred to, things are getting better, starting with the individual national boards who, from 2011, have received 10 per cent of each of their players’ appearance fees.
It really would have been much more interesting, and useful, if Botham had carried out a critique on tournaments like the IPL, and other T20 tournaments, and recommended some steps to make them better. What IPL really needs is patience and perseverance, and not such damning indictments.
