the ball is in play

Americans have cruel saying, “ If you are so smart how come you ain't rich?” The nay Sayers about the astronomical sums offered at the Indian players league auction need to keep that one in mind. Obviously the barons who bid know something that others do not.

By any estimation the bid was a grand success. Half a dozen players went for more than a million dollars a contract. Each ball that Harbhajan Singh bowls for the Mumbai team for example is worth 100,000 rupees. A no ball by him will put an opportunity cost of 50,000 on his personal account. An impressive 50 million dollars was splashed on the first among equals on the cricket pitch during the course of this momentous auction.
This may seem outlandish, but so did Kerry packer’s pajama cricket back in the 70’s. That created history. In a television driven, trillion-dollar economy that is today’s India with cricket as a prime pastime for at least 300 million citizens, the sums offered do not look odd. The IPL deal needs to be placed in the context of the larger picture where entertainment and sports sponsorship are estimated to be a $16 billion business. A large chunk of this in the sports domain comes from the game of cricket.
Like in cricket, so in life there will be winners and there will be losers. Some teams who have the firepower and the stadia that can manage to charge the 500 rupee a ticket that the league is banking on to make money will do well. So on paper Mohali and Calcutta are likely to do well. Others may have given way to irrational exuberance.
In the end the cake of the sport business is beings baked afresh. The IPL is a refreshing and even revolutionary idea from a board known to ignore basic necessities like training and equipping its sportsmen. In the end the hype will matter for little. It will be the paying fans loyalty to the twenty format and his city that may determine the glory of this incredible and audacious endeavor. It is important that the IPL works since it will add depth and dimensions to a beloved sport that sociologist Ashis Nandy famously described as an Indian game that the British discovered accidentally.