Recently, there was a news story about 70+ cricketers abandoning the ICL 20/20 league and going back to the fold of BCCI (or IPL?). I read this news on at least 15+ sites (news sites and blogs). In all these publications, I could not find any blog post or news report that points to the fact that ICL losing sheen is lost opportunity from the perspective of economy, opportunity, employment, and many more. Perhaps, it reflects the state of our media. There is more focus on re-running the same news again and again. It’s a ‘me too world’, but we forget that in ‘me too world’, we as individuals also become ‘one of those’.

I believe that ICL losing steam is a great lost opportunity. This was an opportunity that would have unleashed the economic power of sport to the wider mass of India’s population.

A parallel existence of ICL would have ensured:

* More cricketers across the length and breath our country to have access to the game, more cricketers to have a chance to be counted.

* More competition would have allowed improvement of the game itself.

* More economic benefit by more companies, and more institutions would have been able to associate themselves with the game.

* More employment, more administrative staff, more coaches, more ground staff, more players, more gymnasium, more equipments.

* Many more other aspects.

It is a shame that with more than one billion population, we are restricting the accessibility of the game to only 200 odd players. It is disappointing to know that few bunch of power hungry politicians are allowed to restrict this in the name of being official. The bigger disappointment is they are happy to milk the cow and not give back anything to the cricket itself.

Isn’t it funny that Indian Premier League, was hosted in South Africa because India cannot provide security? Isn’t that shameful? Where is our Indian pride? We should remove the word ‘Indian’ and replace it with ‘Cricket’. I was very happy to see Sachin Tendulkar coming out and saying inaugural edition was more vibrant than IPLII. Although it was said diplomatically, I think it did convey the fact that it was better in India.

I do not think creators of ICL or people associated with ICL lost anything. It’s the folks like you and me, folks wanting to play cricket in small towns, folks wanting to make cricket as a career, are the ones who have lost. We have lost the exponential impact that ICL and IPL together could have had on economic activity across our country. It would have given rise to a new industry segment, known as ‘cricket’.

What do you think on this issue, I would like to know, so please leave comments below.

This post was originally published on TIPBlog.in