Indian Premier League [IPL] – Controversy continues to court Twenty20 cricket around the globe

The lead-up to this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL3.0) continues to get murkier as political pressure and warnings of potential boycotts threatens to destabilise the world’s most high profile Twenty20 tournament.

With the initial controversy of the outright snubbing of Pakistan’s T20 world champion players from any franchise starting to subside, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was hoping for a smoother transition into the season opener on March 12 between defending champions Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders.

That however won’t be the case with continuing political protests in Hyderabad in relation to a proposed new state of Telangana, forcing the match to be moved to Mumbai amid growing security concerns.

In the further politicisation of sport Andhra Pradesh state’s (a region in South India) sports minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has called on the franchise to boycott the tournament if the match is not brought back to the city.

Meanwhile far-right political party Shiv Shena continues to threaten Australia’s cricket players participating in the event because of alleged racist attacks on Indian students in several Australian cities.

Shiv Shena boss Balasaheb Thackeray has made it clear his party will take matters into their own hands if Australian players take part in the tournament however those in the know say the threats are baseless and Australian players will be safe.

Nevertheless a threat is still a threat and is being taken seriously by the Australian Cricket Board.

In other news, Hero Honda, who is an associate sponsor of the IPL and main sponsor of the Delhi Daredevils franchise, has rubbished claims they bought a majority share in the Kings XI Punjab franchise.

With just over a month to go before the opening ceremony and first match, cracks in the fabric of the shortened game appear to be widening.

Apart from the introduction of limited overs cricket back in the ‘70s, the sport has never had this kind of poor publicity nor backlash however if organisers stand strong, like media mogul Kerry Packer did all those years ago, it is certain that this latest round of controversy will pass and all the political jostling will subside whereupon the eyes of the world can turn onto the most important part of the whole debate – the actual quality of cricket.

Meanwhile the debacle that Twenty20 cricket continues to throw into the cricketing world continues with the other tournament of note, the $6 million Champions League.

The England Cricket Board has been asked to move the final few rounds of their long established domestic cricket competition if they want any of their teams to take part in the cash rich tournament, won last year by Australian state side New South Wales.

The $2.5 million winners carrot dangling in front of the clubs is a mighty enticement to do so however if the ECB do relent and change their scheduling to suit the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) devised tournament, it will be the final nail in its coffin as far as being the world’s power broker is concerned.

The shift in power from the ECB to the BCCI has been a slow and gradual process over the past decade however with a much larger fan base coupled with huge sums of money being pumped into the game, India and the sub-continent now calls the shots while England and the ECB are now merely participants.

Don’t be surprised if there is one long and drawn out stalemate between the ECB and BCCI over this matter.

England does not like to be pushed around and will try and use their weight and influence with Commonwealth countries like Australia and New Zealand to try and shift the power back their way.