IPL: Indian Premier League or Indian Paisa League?

Nirupam Banerji says:
Is IPL, Indian Premier League or Indian Paisa League? The answer is very simple. On the face value, IPL is Indian Premier League and in real terms it is Indian Paisa League. At a time when every aspect of human life is becoming highly commercialised, how can cricket be left untouched. So welcome IPL: the most commercialised cricket tournament in the world where money matters the most.
Started in the year 2008, within a very short span of time, IPL has reached the popularity level of the likes of National Basketball League of the US and English Premier League of UK. Based on a franchise system, where the franchises are put for auction and the highest bidder wins the rights to own the team, the simple fact that comes out of it is if you have money (of the likes of Birla’s and Ambani’s) then IPL is the perfect money-spinner for you. Invest in IPL and buy a team, and you have with you an array of national and international cricketing celebrities as your slaves who will have to work really hard in order to assure profit for you and recover your investment.
IPL is not about eight teams fighting to win the cup but it’s about eight businessmen (and actors too) fighting with each other to earn more and more profit out of the investment they have done. IPL is such a commercialised venture that everything associated with the tournament, be it the umpires, the players, the teams, media rights and even ad slots are sold at a hefty price of millions and billions of rupees. Perhaps for the first time, an Indianised global event has been talked about across the international cricketing circuits but only for the wrong reasons of the huge amount of money associated with it and its threat to cricket and cricketers in the long run.
The huge amount of money is also creating a lot of controversies as well. Take the example of Kolkata Knight Riders, where during the last IPL season there were conflicts between the players and the owner, Shahrukh Khan due to his intervention in the cricketing decisions of the team and over the issue of captainship. However, since he is the owner of the team, logically, the team has to abide by his decisions. And the result of such controversy was KKR stood last in the points table. Similar controversies emerged in Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (after their disastrous performance in the first season of IPL) and Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia’s Kings Eleven Punjab.
From the investors (team owners) point of view, IPL is just another business venture for them and since they buy the team and individual players by paying a huge price, the players are hundred percent liable for the profit or loss they make. So the simple consequence is that the players have to dance to the tunes of the owner. IPL’s motive is not to develop cricketing environment in India and set global standards but the only motive of IPL is earn and earn more profit. So profit comes before anything else.
IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi has declared that from the next season onwards, each IPL team has to play four-five sponsored matches abroad so that the advertisers have the advantage of marketing their products in international markets. This also establishes that in IPL money is more important than cricket. Subrata Roy, of Sahara fame, has bought the new Pune franchise of IPL at Rs.1702 crore and Rendezvous Sports Limited, has bought the Kochi franchise at RS.1533 crore. So it is but natural that more pressure will be there on the players, who will play for Pune and Kochi, to earn profit and recover the investment of their respective owners.
IPL has evolved as an outstanding money-spinner with an estimated brand value of over Rs.18000 crores but BCCI’s greed for money is never-ending. It is the time we should seriously think of the hazards of a multi-billion cricket tournament that is slowly changing the very status of cricket as a gentlemen’s game; to cricket as a businessmen’s game.