Indian Premier League - cricket or farce?

It is an old question. This was chewed a lot during the first edition of the league last year. This year, the same question has come with a different angle - the venue for the league.

Plenty of tours have been cancelled in the past because of security reasons. Very rarely have teams agreed to play at a neutral venue after one team had refused to visit the other. Indian Premier League however, has taken the commercialization of the sport to a whole new level. The league which boast "Indian" in its name is being held outside of India. This decision has made a statement - "the first objective of the league is not cricket but the business."

Furthermore, the media coverage of the league just bolsters this fact. Headlines in the paper talk about change in Mandira Bedi's wardrobe rather than an excellent innings by Abhishek Nayar. There were more talks about Rajasthan Royal's new hot owner rather than their strategies to retain the title. Was it a pure coincidence that they lost the first match?

I feel these non-cricketing aspects of cricket are definitely killing the sport more rapidly than we can realize. Having said that, it also gives great platform for cricket where the youngest local talent gets to rub shoulders with the legends of the cricket. It does have a lot of positive aspects about it and scrapping it all together is definitely not a good idea.

I just wish there should be a better governing body for IPL which will make cricket the first priority, don't you?