More than just growing pains for the IPL

To expect an event as big, loud, rich and keenly watched as the Indian Premier League (IPL) to go off without problems is, in some ways, to want a subversion of the order of modern life.

Just in case there are some who had not noticed, it is worth pointing out that modern sport, and even modern cricket, reside firmly within modern life.

So every year, as if by duty, there has been some kerfuffle or the other at the IPL. The nature of the tournament encourages it: the mingling of big money, the crossover with bigger stars from the film world, glamorous business people, the late night parties and India’s pervading media.

Some of it would not be too worrisome. Harbhajan Singh slapping Sreesanth, for instance, post-match in the first season in 2008 was not an especially edifying moment. But it was also not all that serious. Neither was Shah Rukh Khan’s fight and eventually barring by the Mumbai Cricket Association.

But the arrest of an Australian cricketer for molesting a woman or two cricketers being caught at a rave party and detained under suspicion of using recreational drugs speak of a disturbing and complacent culture around the league.

Then there was the termination of two franchises under a cloud and the removal minutes after the end of the third season of Lalit Modi, the founder and first commissioner of the league, after charges of fraud and mismanagement.

There also has been concern that auctions and the rules that govern them are not completely fair; some, Modi claims, have been fixed.

Pakistan’s players have been excluded from the event since 2008. One year Sri Lanka’s players were banned from playing in Chennai and this year, only one Sri Lankan player was bought at the auction.

Now there is spot-fixing. For a league that is only six seasons old to have one spot-fixing controversy, as the IPL did in 2012, is bad enough but to have several players claim that they were ready to, or had, fixed events within games – as happened in a recent TV sting operation – is disastrous, despite five players being banned. These scandals point to inherent problems of governance in the league. They have diminished the idea that the IPL is a robust league, one that wants to take its place in world sport alongside the NBA, or the English Premier League.

It is why, when the IPL was officially launched in Dubai last week, the interim board head for IPL matters, Sunil Gavaskar, said: “After the final on June 2, I want people to remember it for the quality of competition and nothing else.”

The cricket has been compelling often enough, but far more often it has been overshadowed by events off the field.

For the sake of the league, let’s hope this year that is reversed.

osamiuddin@thenational.ae