The infamous IPL

Like all Indians, ever since my primary Schooling days, I have been a die-hard fan of cricket. I can still remember the 1992 world cup as if it happened yesterday. It happens to be the first tournament I am able to remember watching. Cricket was then called "The Gentleman's game". And it lived up to it. I always used to wonder why cricketers, unlike footballers or basketballers or other athletes sported full pants whilst playing! The phrase "Gentleman's game" was theonly thing which answered my questions then.
Frankly speaking, Test cricket is the true Cricket. "It tests the true character of a cricketer". Hence the name "TEST" -one of my friends used to say. If you analyze test cricket in a deep manner, you are ought to realize. Where came the inceptions of One day Internationals and T20 internationals?? Man has become so short of time to watch a Test match in entirety is it?? Twenty 20 spoils the essence of cricketin general. Cricket can no more boast itself as the "gentleman's game".
If you have a deeper analysis of T20 you will find that it's not the right playing arena for cricketing greats like Sachin Tendulkar. Noone can question the abilities of the Little Master. Yet the dumb format called Twenty 20 is not apt for the Master himself. Lesser known "swingers", and blokes who know nothing but just throwing the bat at the ball, in the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Kevin Pietersen are those who perform in the crazy format.
Now let us shift our attention to the 'plagiarised' so called, "Indian Premier League". What started as a business propaganda for Kapil Dev and Zee Television called the "Indian Cricket League" laid the foundation stone for the IPL. Fully plagiarised, with the initiatives stolen from the pro 20 South Africa and the ICL, and even the name copied from the Prominent "English Premier League". Also commercialisation of cricket has crossed leaps and bounds with the IPL. It is well known that the BCCI is the richest cricketing body in the world. IPL is just another ploy to make it even richer.
Ever since its beginning, IPL has never been short of controversies. In fact India(BCCI), was the last to approve of the new T20 format, just before the T20 world cup in SA. The bidding of the teams and the players was in hundreds of crores. God only knows how people in the likes of Sharukh Khan, Preity Zinta and a cement company owner manage to have so much of "white currency". I recently went through an article in Arindham Chaudhury's magazine, 4Ps I suppose. In that, the author had dealt with a buried controversy. Why was the IPL moved to SA in the first place?.Though the justifications to the conspiracy theory were not that lucid and clear, it brought out that there was certainly some 'hide and seek' going on.
Cricket's most dreaded fear- The match fixing saga has risen its ugly head once again, stimulated and nurtured by the big money IPL. Thank god, Mr.Gill expressed his concern regarding the "Guess the Over" SMS contest in SET max a week back. The Kolkata Knight Riders team is already under match fixing allegations, as reported by the "fake IPL player", who in turn has made more news than the IPL itself. Advertising has crossed its limits. "DLF maximum", "CITI moment of success", What is all this?? Is it cricket or some TV reality show going on?
Even the world's favourite game, Football, doesn't have all these gimmicks.
Why does this IPL get so much of attention and revenue? The victorious Indian hockey team with the coveted Azlan Shah Trophy, was not even properly received at the airport. IPL claims to develop and nurture young Indian talent. Where? In the T20 format ? Useless. They''ll develop only the so called "Pinch Hitters"and "Sloggers".
The same nation which gave the world, players like Sunny, Kapil and Sachin and glorified cricket, is destroying cricket. How ironic and heart-breaking! :(