Partab Ramchand
That cricket is no longer a sport but an industry in India is well known for some time now. But even after accepting this, it must be said that events associated with the Indian Premier League have taken the game into a new realm, a corporate world. One has only to go through what Vijay Mallya, the high-profile liquor baron and owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers has said recently to fully grasp the fact that the IPL is well and truly entrenched as a business venture. In Tests and ODIs, if a player fails he is dropped by the selectors. In the IPL, as we have seen when a team fails, key personnel can be sacked and even the captain and coach may be pulled up and uncomfortable questions asked of them by the franchise owners.
In a way, given the background – the astronomical amounts of money invested, the much-publicised auctions, the high-profile tournament, the unprecedented worldwide TV audience and revenues and the consequent high expectations – it was always on the cards that the failure of the Royal Challengers would trigger off some sort of controversy and an unpleasant situation. And big boss Mallya, never one to mince words, has made it clear that he is disappointed with his team's non-performance.
First, he showed CEO Charu Sharma the door and then took on the captain Rahul Dravid in matters of team selection. The high-profile industrialist publicly questioned the team's composition and performance and this led to much debate. But the majority view was that the team owners had every right to ask questions after ploughing in so much money. The franchisee cost for the Royal Challengers is 111.6 million dollars, just below the highest paid out in the case of the Mumbai Indians and a little higher than the franchisee cost for Deccan Chargers, another team that has been a major disappointment despite the big names involved.
In interviews, Mallya made it clear that he had other players in mind but backed the judgement of Sharma and Dravid. "In fact in the second auction, when Dravid was absent, I wanted my set of players but Charu was very tentative and I was held back. It was I who brought in Misbah-ul-Haq. People have to understand IPL has a corporate side to it. It's not all cricket in the traditional sense. I just want to tell Rahul Dravid to do the best he can with this team and produce results. Dravid doesn't enjoy being at the bottom of the league and neither do I."
Mallya also said that he regretted not being involved in the squad's selection during the auction. "My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Though I watch a lot of cricket whenever possible, I am no cricket expert at the end of the day," Mallya said. "I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment and then Charu also backed him. After seeing the final list, my friends told me it looked like a Test team. But I backed both of them thinking that they advised me properly. Unfortunately in cricket, unlike in any other sport, the captain is the boss."
Not expectedly, senior players have come out in defence of the beleaguered Dravid but even they admitted that the owners had a right to ask questions given their huge investments. Indian Test captain Anil Kumble, while saying that he did understand that the IPL is different and there is a corporate look and feel to the entire concept ``at the end of the day it is a cricket match and one that a cricketer does not want to lose.'' No one denies that but when the showing is as shoddy as the Bangalore's team has been, questions will be asked. Even VVS Laxman, the captain of the Deccan Chargers, while coming out in support of Dravid, expressed the view that the IPL's team owners had every right to ask questions, given the investments involved. "The owners can ask why things are not happening. But I can only speak for my team and say that our owners have been very supportive. It was very important for us that even during the tough periods, they came, spoke to us and encouraged us."
Two important lessons can be learnt from the failures of the two teams. One is that big names and iconic stars do not guarantee success. Even in Twenty20, the traditional values of cricket – leadership, team work, dedication and determination – are important. And, of course, the other important point is that as far as the IPL is concerned there is a distinct corporate angle to it what with the huge amount of money invested. And like in the competitive corporate world you have to produce results or you may have to face the music or even be shown the door. Cricket is no longer a sport, it is a business and that point has just been driven home by the failures of two high-profile teams and the reactions to their disastrous campaigns.
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