Indian Premier League : Is It Cricket or Corporate ?

It seems that there is one arena in which India has really arrived at the world stage and that too, as a leader. It is  undoubtedly, none other than our very own game of cricket. Cricket is like a passion in India. Every cricket playing kid wants to be like Sachin Tendulkar, and why not, the name itself boasts of hundreds of records in cricket history. Cricket got its roots in Europe but over the time, it became extremely popular and successful in South Asia. Earlier, it was played as Test and One-Day game and due to it's immense success, the cricketing fraternity evolved another format of the game known as 20-Twenty or simply T20. This short form of cricket was evolved keeping in mind that many people were not able to devote their complete full day for watching a game.

List of some players who were auctioned in IPL season 4

But this game of passion and energy, is now turning into a financial business involving big Corporate houses and business-men. At-least, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises says allot about it. Today, while watching the auctions of players on TV, I was feeling that whether  it is that same old cricket which was once played among different countries to win for the glory of their nation. Is it the same game, which had provided the Indians and Pakistanis a lot many opportunities to celebrate Diwali or Eid more than once in a single year. The answer seems to be simple. Not any more. The cricket has turned into a big business and a money generating entertainment, excluding all the fun, passion, energy and everything which makes it a sport.

I still remember those days when there use to be so much passion involved whenever India use to play. We use to bunk our classes just to see Sachin or Saurabh batting on the crease.  The fielding of Yuvraj or the wicket keeping of Rahul Dravid is still in memory. But, all these memories got diluted when everybody heard about match-fixing in this game. The game, which over the time, had become the religion of South Asia, was suddenly in highlight for some bad reasons, and that to due to some top players. And now this Indian Premier League, involving millions of dollars, cheer girls, late night parties and very less cricket,  seems to be putting the last nail into the coffin of that passionate cricket which once use to convert whole South Asia into a hot battlefield.

The Players are being offered huge amount of money just to play for these IPL franchises. The average comes around $ 4- 6 hundred thousand per player. There are few questions which comes to my mind and I feel some other well wishers of cricket must also be thinking on the same lines.
It is good that they are getting payed for their work but are they not getting over-payed ?
Will it going to be fruitful for cricket in the long run? Many people, including me doubt this.
How can a player play a game when his whole concentration is going to be divided into late night parties, cheer girls and to the easy money he is going to get?
How a tournament involving billions of dollars from Corporate World, can stay undiluted from unethical means?
How can a player going to play honestly and with full dedication for his own country where the money involved is just pea nuts as compared to the money involved in IPL?

These and many such questions definitely raise a concern over the authenticity of such cricket. It is rightly said that excess of everything is bad. Excess of money involved in this tournament will definitely be going to prove bad for the game of cricket. Cricket is a game I enjoy the most and I pray that it stays the game it use to be for the millions of its followers, who miss all the action and fun in todays cricket which use to be there few years back, when it was free from all the corruption, match-fixing and the amount of unaccountable money.