IPL & Pakistan

The exclusion of Pakistani players from the IPL has divided opinions like few other issues. Like most issues involving India and Pakistan, opinions have been mixed. Was the IPL right in keeping the Pakistani players out?

It is immediately obvious that the reasons for their exclusion are non-cricketing ones. Apart from the fact that Pakistan are world champions in this format, they have also easily been the most consistent team in T-20 cricket. Afridi, Asif, Aamer, Gul and maybe even Imran Nazir, Saeed Ajmal and youngsters like Umar Akmal would have certainly found bidders had they been from any other cricketing nation.

Pakistani journalists have lashed out at the IPL for ignoring their players. They have also claimed that there is a larger conspiracy here – namely to insult Pakistan and its cricketers. Some of the Pakistani cricketers have echoed these sentiments. The IPL for its part has said that the selection of players are the prerogative of the various franchises and that it had no say over who gets selected.

The franchise owners have invested a lot of money in the IPL. Like all business people their priority is to get a reasonable return on their investment. Given the fragile relationship that India shares with Pakistan at this point, it is only natural that the franchises were reluctant. The recession may have shown signs of receding, but the after effects are still being felt. Another bomb blast or terrorist attack in the near future and the participation of the Pakistanis would again be in doubt. The franchises were not prepared to take a risk and there is nothing wrong with that.

What could have been avoided though was the way the whole thing was conducted. The horrendous attacks in Mumbai happened well over a year ago and this situation is nothing new. If the franchises were reluctant to sign Pakistani players, then what was the point on going through the meaningless charade of asking them to apply? It would have been much easier to have just informed the players before-hand that they need not apply as the franchises were not interested.

Lastly for those claiming that India should have played the role of big brother and encouraged the Pakistanis to compete are missing the point completely. The IPL is a private owned league. The owners have not invested money to spread the cricketing gospel or for any other such noble cause. Their objective has been to make as much money out of possible from the new ‘craze’ that has engulfed world cricket. Given this it is hardly surprising that they have gone for players who they know would be available to them for as long as possible.

Total Cricket

Flexibility seems to be the in-thing in cricket today. Gone are the days where a batsman knew before a game where he was likely to be batting. In the context of Indian cricket, Greg Chapell first came up with this idea and its now being taken forward by MS Dhoni. Samir Chopra on Cricinfo reccently suggested that batsman needed to bat at fixed positions, but they should be able to change their game depending on the situation of the match. This in theory is a fantastic proposition but can it be implemented successfully?

Total football was a strategy that gained a lot of interest in the fifties and sixties The Hungarian side which had amongst others the great Ferenc Puskas believed that all players needed to be able to play in all positions. The theory believed that a defender should be equally adept at attacking as he was in defending. That Hungary side came closest to actually translating this theory into successful performance. But in the end the theory died out. People realized that it was next to impossible to master every skill possible. After all different players have different strengths.

Let us say for example that Suresh Raina gets the go-ahead to be India's number 3 batsman. Then even in the event of playing in conditions were the ball is swinging and seaming, Raina should be able to combat the seaming ball as well as Rahul Dravid. If this was indeed true, it would undoubtedly be fantastic. But this happening is extremely unlikely.

India at times in the world cup seemed to experiment a little too much even when it was clearly not required. I reckon India will be better served by having a stable batting order that can be flexible if the situation demands it.