The final stats from ICL and IPL

Monday, 2nd June 2008 (it was supposed to be 1st June but the whole thing ended close to morning), saw the end of an amazingly well fought match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Superkings marking the end of Indian Premier League. The whole of India must have been glued to their TV sets to watch the epic end. Since then I have read hoards of articles and heard unending talk shows as to what IPL meant to India and its role in blossoming India’s future in cricket. Most of them forget one thing. There would not have been any IPL if the ICL was not born. I personally think IPL owes a lot, and more to Mr. Chandra.

There have been comparisons between the two leagues and the IPL has won hands down in all. Be it the TRP’s, or revenues for the teams, crowd support, star appeal or just the way the tournament has been conducted. The IPL has overtaken the ICL in all those departments. But if you are someone who likes to know how cricket is benefited overall, read on.

Thanks to the maximum 4 rule of IPL, the Indian players got a chance to play in the tourney. Unknown faces from across the country showcased their skills on a very large platform. There were in all 86 Indian players who were given an opportunity to be a part of the teams. These players had never represented the country. I am not counting the ones who had. Of these 86 players a huge bunch of which I don’t have a count of only warmed the benches. But, there were 12 players who got the opportunity and also made it count. The players who changed their destinies with IPL were: Ravindra Jadeja, Manpreet Gony, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Amit Mishra, Siddharth Trivedi, Shikhar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Ashok Dinda, Dhaval Kulkarni and Pragyan Ojha.

Of these only Pragyan Ohja was the lone player who got selected in the Indian team. Yes, Yousuf did get selected, but that was on the cards even before the IPL, and also that he had represented the country in T20 World Cup. So for me the numbers that are important are 86, 12 and 1, Number of players who were in, the ones who performed and the one who made it to the national side in that order.

The ICL on the other hand was a neglected baby compared to the IPL. But then they were not far behind in the numbers that matter. Yes, they had less Ad revenues, leave alone ads they had less revenues overall. But the ICL offered a platform to 79 young cricketers of this country who would have not seen a crowd more than 500 in their life had it not been for the ICL. They all performed out of their skins to ensure they were noticed. The ultimate reward was a blue uniform for 16 of them. Though the uniform did not carry the BCCI logo, it would certainly have been a matter of great pride for the following 16: Rajagopal Satish, Abbas Ali, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abu Nacheem, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu, Ganapathi Vignesh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Love Ablish, Ravi Raj Patil, Rohan Gavaskar, Stuart Binny, Syed Mohammed, T. Sudhindra, TP. Singh and V. Sarvanan. The only player in the team who had previously known how it feels like in the blue uniform was Thiru Kumaran.

Whatever happens next. Whether IPL becomes the only form of cricket, killing Test and Onedayers, or whether everyone in the world has their own league. The facts are in front of you. I am someone who watches and admires Test cricket and I will continue to do so. But if these formats can produce 5 players every year who can bat for 4 hours without getting out, and 5 players who can bowl 20 overs in a day with steadiness, rest assured I will be the happiest cricket fan on the planet.