The day before India began a Test match against South Africa in Ahmedabad this month, coach Gary Kirsten scheduled a training session, but only five players made it.
There is no dissent towards the coach, it’s just the Indian players had greater priorities than preparing to play for their country – their Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises.
After India were rolled for 76 on day one and lost the match by an innings, former player Sunil Gavaskar questioned whether attending franchise launches was the best preparation for a Test.
A justifiable question, but in cricket-mad India, it is difficult to envisage players bunkering down away from their IPL owners given the unprecedented interest and money involved.
The IPL, the Twenty20 extravaganza featuring many of the world’s best players spread across eight privately-owned teams, begins next Friday amid a remarkable sea of publicity.
Team launches have been televised live, promotional advertisements resemble Bollywood productions and every skerrick of IPL-related news has been sucked up.
Matches will be played every day for the next six weeks, all of them promoted as gladiatorial contests pitting stars against their compatriots and former rivals as allies.
A marketer’s dream has Brett Lee bowling to Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh renewing their rivalry, but also Ricky Ponting and nemesis Ishant Sharma as Kolkata teammates, Shane Warne and former adversary Graeme Smith playing together, and Sourav Ganguly and John Buchanan putting aside the niggle of 2001 to plot their opponents’ downfalls.
The hyperbole should ensure all 59 IPL games are well-attended and draw the sort of viewership that satisfies Sony Entertainment, which paid over $900 million for the television rights.
But the real influence of the IPL will depend on what its legacy, akin to the revolution World Series Cricket brought a generation ago.
Ask cricket’s lateral thinkers about the IPL and they will argue a new dawn has arrived, and that one day club competitions could prop up the international game.
Neil Maxwell, a leading player agent with Insite and now the chief executive of the Mohali franchise, believes if successful, the IPL could usher in a system where club matches drive the game and its finances.
“The club system provides a regular revenue stream and this structure has the potential to follow a similar suit to football (soccer) and others where internationals fit into the club program as opposed to the other way around,” Maxwell says.
“That’s why there’s a complete new feel to the competition because it’s so unique in many ways.
“It’s the first introduction of corporate world into the ownership of cricket teams and with that comes a a lot of business acumen and flair … It presents a range of new priorities moving forward which need to be addressed.”
Buchanan was always one for left-field strategies during his Australian tenure and believes the IPL will force administrators to consider a more streamlined world competition.
“We could have a bit like soccer, eight to 10 zones around the world, each with 10 franchises and then a window, say four weeks, to have their play-offs, and then the top eight teams come together and play for the world series,” he says.
“That will take some time, but that’s potentially where it could go.”
Buchanan says franchising could be the vehicle to give the International Cricket Council (ICC) a foot-hold in new markets, such as the United States and China, and improve infrastructure in, for example, the Caribbean.
He also believes cricket is ready to evolve into 50-over cricket being made redundant by Twenty20, and being replaced by 40-over games (two innings of 20 overs per side) as a segue between the short version and Tests.
Concerns remain over whether Test standards are diluted if the best players commit long-term to either the IPL or its rival the Indian Cricket League, the competition which does not have ICC endorsement and which concludes its second season next week.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland is confident that will not happen, as, unlike soccer, cricket was founded on internationals, not club games.
Sutherland has been given an assurance by the Indian board, which devised the IPL, that stars will always be released to fulfil their international commitments.
But he concedes even if stars retire prematurely to commit to Indian leagues, then that will benefit the next generation.
Western Australian wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi never considered applying for the franchise auction in February, because doing so in such company would have made him look a “tool”.
But a phone call from a contact in India landed Ronchi a place on Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai team, and the 26-year-old is just thrilled to be involved.
“Just to be in the change rooms with these massive names in world cricket, it’s going to be amazing,” he says.
“Even if I only play one game I’ll be happy as Larry.”
Organisers will wait to determine whether to expand to two seasons per year.
There are problems to be solved, such as an ongoing dispute with media companies disgruntled with IPL guidelines, but bank on the inaugural tournament being a success.
If only India’s players could be left to focus on their franchises, without other distractions.
They play South Africa in the third Test tomorrow.
© AAP 2012Indian Premier League franchises.
BANGALORE ROYAL CHALLENGERS
Captain: Rahul Dravid (IND)
Australians: Nathan Bracken, Cameron White
Other stars: Mark Boucher (RSA), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Jacques Kallis (RSA), Zaheer Khan (IND), Anil Kumble (IND), Dale Steyn (RSA), Ross Taylor (NZ)
Coach: Venkatesh Prasad (IND)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $8CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (IND)
Australians: Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey
Other stars: Stephen Fleming (NZ), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Makhaya Ntini (RSA), Jacob Oram (NZ)
Coach: Kepler Wessels (RSA)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $5DECCAN CHARGERS (Hyderabad)
Captain: VVS Laxman (IND)
Australians: Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds
Other stars: Herschelle Gibbs (RSA), Shahid Afridi (PAK), Chamara Silva (SL), RP Singh (IND), Scott Styris (NZ), Chaminda Vaas (SL)
Coach: Robin Singh (IND)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $4DELHI DAREDEVILS
Captain: Virender Sehwag (IND)
Australians: Brett Geeves, Glenn McGrath
Other stars: AB de Villiers (RSA), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Gautam Gambhir (IND), Farveez Maharoof (SL), Mohammad Asif (PAK), Shoaib Malik (PAK), Daniel Vettori (NZ)
Coach: Greg Shipperd (AUS)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $8KINGS XI PUNJAB (Mohali)
Captain: Yuvraj Singh (IND)
Australians: James Hopes, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Luke Pomersbach, Shaun Marsh
Other stars: Mahela Jayawardene (SL), Kyle Mills (NZ), Irfan Pathan (IND), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI), Shantha Sreesanth (IND)
Coach: Tom Moody (AUS)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $7KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Captain: Sourav Ganguly (IND)
Australians: David Hussey, Ricky Ponting
Other stars: Ajit Agarkar (IND), Chris Gayle (WI), Brendon McCullum (NZ), Mohammad Hafeez (PAK), Ishant Sharma (IND), Shoaib Akhtar (PAK), Tatenda Taibu (ZIM)
Coach: John Buchanan (AUS)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $6MUMBAI INDIANS
Captain: Sachin Tendulkar (IND)
Australians: Luke Ronchi, Dominic Thornely
Other stars: Dilhara Fernando (SL), Harbhajan Singh (IND), Sanath Jayasuriya (SL), Lasith Malinga (SL), Shaun Pollock (RSA), Ashwell Prince (RSA)
Coach: Lalchand Rajput (IND)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $7RAJASTHAN ROYALS (Jaipur)
Captain/coach: Shane Warne (AUS)
Other Australians: Shane Watson
Other stars: Mohammad Kaif (PAK), Kamran Akmal (PAK), Dimitri Mascarenhas (ENG), Munaf Patel (IND), Graeme Smith (RSA), Younis Khan (PAK)
TAB Sportsbet odds to win: $11
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