ICL Vs IPL… What stands out??

Beloved son against the neglected (rebel!) one…this sounds like an apt description of the two newest babies of the grand old religion, which about half the world follows. Cricket has always been a game that has been very receptive to change though not immediately. The T20 version of cricket suddenly saw a burst of leagues in various parts of the world to counter arguably the most popular game that the world have ever seen… Soccer.

While the Alan Stanford backed Stanford T20 has grasped attention of the cricket crazy islands south of America, the ICL and IPL have born much to the amusement of the a billion people back home. The Stanford league has definitely helped the revival of cricket in the West Indies. The dying state of cricket stadiums with empty stands during test matches seems long gone. With black bats and white balls flying around the ground in front of huge screens, it is for sure that the T20 is here to stay.

Though the lucky facet of the windies is that the authorities that run the show have backed the league. The same though has not been the case in India. While Mr. Chandra has done a great job ensuring the much-ignored lot in India, the Ranji Players, gets what they deserve, it has not been taken well by the ever bullying, powerful BCCI. The birth of IPL to counter the ICL has been enough evidence of the same. But who will stand out eventually in the eyes of the common man? This is the question, which can be debated for hours together.

For once the ICL has more brand credibility than the IPL in my eyes. With two T20 tourneys, one 50 over tourney under their belt and the ICL World T20 awaiting its first ball as I write this, the ICL has proved that even when the strongest of them are against you, with will to succeed and honesty towards the game, you can achieve the impossible.

The last T20 tourney held in Panchkula and Hyderabad has drawn more than decent crowds and people have connected to the ever-popular never hyped cricketers from the domestic foray of cricket. If the scenes at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium when the Heroes won against the Badshahs are anything to go by, the ICL has arrived in India and no Modi-Pawar-Shah trio can uproot it.

Technically speaking, there has been a tremendous improvement in the standard of the game since ICL was launched. While the inexperience of the organizers was there to be seen in the first tournament the cricket was also of a mediocre quality. But come the second tournament everything just changed drastically. The grounds and the pitches looked far better. The quality of cricket being played also looked improved. So much so that the All Test Star Studded Lahore team was comprehensively beaten 2-0 in the finals by a pack of rebel youngsters from Hyderabad who would certainly have found it hard to stamp authority of any sorts on the Indian cricket scene had it not been for the ICL. Not even in his wildest dreams would Alfred ‘Freddie’ Absolom have imagined picking up 7 wickets in four overs to technically create a world record in the latest form of cricket. And for someone like Ibraheem Khaleel, it was just a dream to wear India colors. The dream has come true with him being selected in the ICL-India side. Though not backed the BCCI and the ICC, the Indian colors will still be a matter of great pride for the gloveman from Hyderabad.

Where does this leave the IPL though? Much has been talked, printed and telecasted about this favorite child of the BCCI even before it is born. Huge money has been spun over even before the first ball is bowled. The teams have franchisees with all their glaz-ma-traaz making me think that cricket can very well take a back seat. With decent number of stars in the IPL known for their off the field heroics, the tourney looks more like a great bollywood tamasha than a cricket tournament. No… I am not anti-IPL. But somehow apart from the great adverts nothing interests me. Will I cheer for Andrew “Troublemaker” Symonds when he plays for Hyderabad??? I’d better cheer Ibraheem Khaleel.

The end though looks very pleasing. I think this is pure imagination but I see the Indian selection committee choosing the Indian Test Team and they are fighting among each other to take players from the ICL as if they were players from the states they belong to. I think I am sleeping but then please…. I beg you… Please don’t wake me up…. God Bless Cricket