Shifting IPL abroad would be grave folly

The threat held out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur that the board is contemplating shifting the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) outside the country as it had done with IPL-2 in 2009 is deeply regrettable. Thakur gave vent to his anger and frustration when he told the media on Wednesday that “BCCI has become a punching bag and that the rise in public interest litigations in courts against IPL has led to huge losses. The board has suffered and teams have suffered due to cancellation of air tickets and hotel bookings. TV crews are being shifted around to new venues,” he said in apparent anger. It is unclear whether Thakur’s diatribe was directed at litigants or at the Bombay High Court which had forced the BCCI to shift 13 of the 20 matches scheduled in Maharashtra in the current edition of IPL to venues outside that state at the last minute on grounds that Maharashtra was in the grip of a severe drought and could ill afford wastage of water associated with IPL matches. Whatever may be the merits or demerits of the High Court’s order, it is puerile to infer that similar weather conditions would prevail next year too, necessitating a re-location of the entire tournament. One of the inherent criticisms by the court was that the BCCI and the State government had failed to take timely action to meet the water requirements of IPL through the best possible means. Thakur and evidently the BCCI itself have conveniently chosen to ignore this aspect. The senior BCCI functionary added that the governing council of the BCCI would meet shortly to decide on the ‘ideal’ venue for the next IPL tourney. Relocating the tournament to South Africa in 2009 had posed extreme logistical challenges for the BCCI since more than 10,000 cricketers and other staff members needed to be flown from India to South Africa within a span of a few weeks after the then UPA government refused to guarantee the deployment of adequate para-military forces due to the impending general elections at that time. The IPL injected approximately US$100 million into South Africa's local economy which was money lost to India. In addition, the BCCI signed a Rs. 82 billion (US$1.63 billion) contract with Multi Screen Media to broadcast matches live from South Africa to India. Millions of cricket fans in India were disappointed that they lost out on watching matches in the second biggest cricket tournament in the world after the World Cup. That betting syndicates had a great time is no secret too.

That the shifting of venues out of Maharashtra this time around due to the court’s order has caused much dislocation and hardship is true. Thakur is not wrong when he says that. But that is no reason why lessons cannot be learnt and better advance planning cannot be done. The court’s order itself is debatable. Some IPLwatchers have pointed out that the water that was being used for the ground was not drinking water. Some may argue that water in any form should be conserved during a drought but are the venues to which the matches were shifted any better? Rajasthan was thought of as an alternative but litigants have claimed that the drought in that state is worse than in Maharashtra. On April 27 the High Court there will look into the question of whether matches should be allowed to be hosted in Rajasthan but before that on April 25 the Supreme Court will take up the challenge to the Bombay High Court order on shifting matches out of Maharashtra. In Chhattisgarh too, litigants have surfaced challenging the bid to host IPL matches in Raipur. Anurag Thakur’s pique at increasing litigation is understandable but this is democracy and cricket, the intensely-popular game that it is, cannot wish away the tendency to litigate to become heroes in the eyes of some. The BCCI which is so prosperous by cashing in on a cricketcrazy nation should not grudge having to spend on a battery of lawyers to fight its cases. It is indeed laughable to say that the BCCI is under severe financial strain. In any event, shifting the prestigious tournament out of India is hardly an ideal solution. It may be fine as a threat but carrying it out will be a huge disappointment to many cricket-lovers. One can only hope that the governing council of the BCCI would show better sense and not rob the country of a form of entertainment that has become so addictive in the decade and a half of IPL. Some of the management ills of IPL and of the BCCI need to be ironed out but it is imprudent to throw the baby out with the bath water.