The Kochi franchise having finally gotten its act together, it would seem that the stage is set for the Indian Premier League’s fourth season. However, it is not all smooth sailing for the Indian cricket board and a few hurdles appear to have cropped up all of a sudden. For one, the Bombay high court-appointed arbitrator has given the Jaipur-based Rajasthan Royals — champions of IPL-1 — a fresh lease of life in the form of a six-week stay on their expulsion from the league. That in turn has made the Royals
eligible to participate in the player auction scheduled for early next month, but indications are that this may be put off till March. This in itself creates a fresh set of problems as it would clash directly with the World Cup that is being hosted in the subcontinent. Then, the second team controversially excluded from IPL-4, Kings XI Punjab, too have their case in court. This means that the confusion over the total number of teams participating in the new season continues. For its part, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has indicated that the new season will have eight teams — the tottering Kochi combine joined by the Sahara Group’s Pune-based team as replacements for the expelled Royals and Kings XI Punjab — but the November 30 ruling in favour of the Royals has led to yet more uncertainty and confusion. Initially, there was talk of an expanded format and more matches as there would be 10 teams in the fray.
The BCCI, after having ousted former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, then picked on the alleged change of ownership patterns of the Royals and Kings XI to dump them from the league. That brought the format back in line with the one used in the first three editions, only for things to go offtrack yet again in the wake of the November 30 ruling. In any case, there was a shakeout due in the form of the fresh set of player auctions as the initial contracts had expired at the end of the last season. With only a few of the original six teams opting to retain key players — and paying a heavy chunk of the limited budget to do so in the process — even the cricketers are unsure about their immediate prospects. Factor in the delayed auction in the hope that legal challenges would have been quelled or taken care of by then, and a fairly unhappy picture emerges. None of this bodes well for a business model that had become the envy of cricket boards around the world.
The longer the fuzziness remains, the harder it will be for teams to get their squads together, create the necessary buzz around them, satisfy sponsors and so on ahead of the new season. It cannot also be forgotten that all the original teams would now be looking forward to finally earning substantially from their investments — however much their valuations may have grown on paper — and in the event the BCCI has to accept a 10-team league, it will cut into revenue streams all round, particularly relating to the chunk expected to come out of television rights sales alone. Clearly, a time for some tightrope walking by the men in charge of Indian cricket.