Sport | Cricket
IPL ushers in a new era
The Indian Premier League is set to usher in a new multi-million dollar era for the sport. Boasting the world's top players, it promises to have all the glitz and glamour of a Bollywood classic.
- By Scyld Berry, Telegraph Group
- Published: 00:15 April 17, 2008
- Image Credit:
- Fifteen cricketers are going to earn more than $800,000 each over the next six weeks.
The Indian Premier League is set to usher in a new multi-million dollar era for the sport. Boasting the world's top players, it promises to have all the glitz and glamour of a Bollywood classic.
When dusk descends on India this Friday evening, and the lights go on in Bangalore, not only will the Indian Premier League commence. It will also launch the fourth age of cricket.
The first era extended from the sport's birth in medieval England to the 1870s; the second covered Test cricket for the next hundred years; and the third was the commercial, international era launched in Australia by Kerry Packer.
Starting next weekend, India will shape the sport, as their eight city-based franchises play matches of 20 overs per side in a three-hour package designed for mass, global entertainment. The salaries of the top players are beyond the wildest imaginings of anyone who has played before.
Excitement
Fifteen cricketers are going to earn more than $800,000 each over the next six weeks, assuming they play most of the 14 games for their franchise, and wherever there is a salary cap there is usually boot money.
It is not only the money. Other ingredients going into IPL are excitement, glamour, music, film stars and beautiful women, which may not be on display, to quite the same extent, at Bristol, where Gloucestershire are simultaneously playing Derbyshire in the four-day County Championship. Yes, cricket is moving on, and moving east, in step with the world's economy.
The biggest names will be there. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in lucrative reincarnations; Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting, after Australia's tour of Pakistan was most conveniently cancelled; all the icons of Indian cricket such as Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. You name him, he will be there, except for the leading South Africans, who have to miss the first fortnight, and all of England's leading cricketers (save Dimitri Mascarenhas) who, being contracted to the ECB until September, will have to miss out. Some of the country's brightest brains are now going into the marketing of Indian cricket — which has never been the case in England.
The owner of Kolkata Knight Riders is Shah Rukh Khan, as famous as any Indian film star. Their main sponsor is Nokia. Their coach is John Buchanan and their captain is Ganguly.
"Every franchise had an amount of $5 million to spend as a maximum, and there is a restriction of eight overseas players in each franchise, and you can play only four at a time," said Ganguly.
"We have to have four Indian under-21 players, two under 19s, and four local players from our catchment area."
The last is, surely, an essential ingredient: spectators will feel it is their team, representing their city, with cosmopolitan signings.
"There's no restriction on the number of Indian players you can play, so we kept a bit more money for a fast bowler," Ganguly added. Which is how a tall 19-year-old pace bowler called Ishant Sharma, who admittedly bowled brilliantly at Ponting in Australia earlier this year, is set to earn $950,000 in the next six weeks.
Sustainable
Are these sums sustainable, or will the bubble burst? Kolkata expect to make a profit in the medium term, well before their 10-year franchise is over.
Snags will arise, as they always do, and team loyalty may be difficult to maintain as the lesser local players will be paid $30,000, while the stars receive 10 to 40 times as much. Prize money of around $3 million for winning the final in Mumbai on June 1 may also tempt players to behave in ways not envisaged in MCC's Spirit of Cricket, and their is a belief the sport will attract illegal gambling.
But one thing is for sure cricket's future will assuredly be reshaped.
"For most players Test cricket is the highest form of the game," Ganguly said last week, but he was speaking for current cricketers. Any boy being raised in Kolkata's gutters will dream of fighting his way out by playing cricket of 20 overs per side.
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