With the dust barely settled after Sri Lanka’s magnificent – and long-awaited -– win in the World T20 final against India, the cricketing world readies itself for a super-charged event that takes cricket by storm annually, without fail.
The T20 season is in full flow and fans in the UAE are in for a treat, with the first leg of the Indian Premier League all set to kick off in Abu Dhabi from April 16.
This year’s IPL, split between the UAE and India due to the ongoing general elections in the host country, will be a lot like the 2011 edition.
That year too was a World Cup year, with the tournament kicking off barely a week after India lifted the trophy beating the Lankans in Mumbai.
Then there was a lot of concern about fatigue as the 50- over World Cup went on for around two months. This time, those concerns won’t be there as teams haven’t had to exert for so long.
However, what will be an issue is the absence of a majority Sri Lanka’s World-Cup winning squad.
During the February IPL auction, only one current Sri Lankan player – Thisara Perera to Kings XI Punjab – was bought while Lasith Malinga was retained by the Mumbai Indians, meaning there was no place for the likes of Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Angelow Mathews.
The reason given was the Lankan players’ unavailability for the entire duration of the tournament as their national team is penciled in to tour England, starting May 9.
Franchises don’t want to fork out money for two to three weeks of availability and it didn’t come as a surprise when Kumar Sangakkara opted out of the auction, saying he would rather concentrate on the national side and put his hat in the ring in next year’s IPL auction.
There are some who feel the Sri Lankan’s ‘exclusion’ was down to their cricket board’s initial opposition to the revamp of the ICC that gave a bulk of the power to the Indian, Australian and English boards.
Whatever the reasons, fans in the UAE, and in India who will get to see the jamboree from May 2, won’t witness members of the current World T20 winning side prove their might in the fun-filled carnival that is the IPL.
It’s also the league’s loss that proven stars from the island nation, barring a few, won’t be a part of the proceedings, taking some sheen off the tournament.
But given the ever-changing dynamics of the IPL, and franchises beginning to put full availability on top of the priority list, one believes situations like the one facing Sri Lanka right now will keep arising.
If all cricket boards sit together and create a window for the IPL, a lot of scheduling issues would solve automatically. Sadly, that’s not the world we live in.
