I have bored my friends to death with this, but the recent theatrics around cricket make me go again.

The Dream

It is about a dream I have. Come back home at 7 pm after a tiring day at work. Turn on the TV. Skip those Saas Bahu things to go straight to the sports channel I love – call it Neo for now (for it stands a chance!). My team, Bengalooru Hoysalas takes the field. The Hoysalas have 30 million strong fans backing it. Sheer numbers and economics mean that some players I’d pay to watch – Kevin Pietersen and Chris Gayle – play to please me. The match starts at 7 sharp. Its a variant of 20-20, and I don’t mind staying up till 11 to watch all of it. Today, the Hoysalas play Mumbai Bulls, and I relish the prospect of seeing Kumble-Tendulkar and Munaf-Pietersen rivalries renew tonite.

Anything wrong with that dream? The ingredients are all here, isn’t it. Good number of cable TV homes, but complete lack of organized sports for those who want anything, anything other than Raju Shrivastava and Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani. Lots of players who struggle for hard-to-come stardom. Linguistic and regional ‘feelings’ to exploit. And most important, a billion folks in love with the game.

BCCI – a monopoly?

Would you agree it is one? If you are a budding cricketer, that sole body has the key to your fortunes. How many times have we heard things like these – “Hanumant Singh should have played more matches”. “Wish Mohinder Amarnath got more chances”. “Ravi Shastri would have made a good captain”. Isn’t it sad the only 11 get to play on any given day?

Trust me that for every 11 guys we field and 11 we leave on the fringes, there would be a hundred who would have given them a run for their money had the monopolistic ways of BCCI not existed. When the sport is generating so much money, why are the most important actors of the drama, the players not getting an equitable cut out of it? Can’t the game supports 100 stars at a time? I think it can.

Back to the question

So you tell me now. Are you still bothered for an answer to the “How do we win at Aus and SA” question? I am not. If a professional domestic league will provide you with enough kicks, why would you bother with needless international tensions and selectorial debates?

I wont. But even if you would, a quality domestic setup is guaranteed to throw better bowlers than the present lot who can’t bowl 4 good length balls an over. It will sure provide us with more Dhonis and Dravids as well.

And BTW, did you see the empty stands for non-India matches in recently concluded Champions Trophy?

Will it come true?

With most ingredients in place, highly likely that it will. How exactly, I don’t know yet. Some powerful TV media company may start pushing BCCI around to let go of its grip on domestic cricket. Some Kerry Packer like guy may start pushing ICC for cutting on the humongous amount of international cricket to make space for a 3-4 month long domestic league. Or may be that a group of frustrated players (Dinesh Mongia, Murali Karthik, Hemang Badanai, Jacob Martin etc etc) will borrow some money from Vijay Mallya to start a colorful Twenty20 league of their own. Hula-lala-le 20-20 league, anyone!?

Whichever way it starts, I see good chances that in 10 years from now, I will own a season ticket to all Bengalooru Hoysala home matches at Chinnaswamy stadium :) Have you ever been to a day night game there? Wonderful weather. 40000 screaming fans, 1000 channel surround sound greeting every boundary. Too bad that we get a chance to enjoy that atmosphere only once an year. And if that is not enough, we get treated like cattle if we dare to make that trip.