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A breakaway Indian domestic cricket league from Zee?

By: Anantha :+: Under: Business, Cricket, Sports
On: ⋅ April 3, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Is Subhash Chandra trying to do a Packer? Is this independent cricket league what India needs?

Earlier today a Cricinfo piece by Sambit Bal called for something similar - A revolution, if you please. And once this news broke, Cricinfo’s executive editor, Jayaditya Gupta weighed in with his thoughts on the scenario and tells us the challenges that Chandra faces while trying to emulate Kerry Packer’s World Series of Cricket, a two year enterprise that made one day cricket the spectacle that it is now.

But more than Packer, on a much recent note, it is pertinent to mention that Houston businessman Allen Stanford (Chairman and CEO of the Stanford Financial Group of Companies) embarked on a similar exercise, in November last year with his Standord 2020 Cup, a inter-Caribbean 20/20 championship involving 19 countries in the region with a, ostensibly an attempt to catalyze a “resurgence of love for the game” and return Caribbean cricket to the glory days of the 70s and the early 80s.

The Stanford Tournament promised to bring financial windfalls to the teams with a top prize of $1 million and $100,000 each to the 19 teams just to spruce up their facilities for the tournament. And Stanford also promised almost $6 million in cash or kind to these nations to fund their long term development.

Informed accounts say that the tournament achieved its short term goals, i.e. to drum up support for cricket. Vaneisa Baksh says that sometimes attendance surpassed that of the Test matches between the West Indies and India that were on a couple of months before. The organization of the tournament was a sharp contrast to the squabbles within the WICB.

I think the short term success of the Stanford tournament was a combination of factors. First Stanford got a panel of more than a dozen former West Indian greats on board to drum up support with the masses. He also made sure that the money went toward an overall package aimed to supplement whatever infrastructure the islands possessed and paid for some staples of modern sports that seemed to be absent in the Caribbean - the services of a nutritionist, trainers etc. So it certainly seems that he got started on the right note, though it remains to be seen if Stanford does more than just talk about the future.

That is where Subhash Chandra seems to be in the grey. While the announcement is all fine and dandy, I think the timing has been more strategic than anything. He has seemed to get the attention of an entire nation when it is practically in mourning. But he’d better come up with more than just talk. Nothing is known about his support structure apart from just grandiose words. So will Mr. Chandra walk the talk? Will he be able to stand up to the BCCI? Stanford was able to shut up the WICB with the money he threw down on the table, but in this case, the BCCI is rich enough.

So the ball is now in the BCCI’s court. Will they call Chandra’s bluff? In fact is Chandra just bluffing? Or does he have the right cards to shake up Indian (and perhaps international) cricket as well? All we can do now is wait and watch. The battle lines have been certainly drawn and this promises to be fun.

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