When you think of Champions League, you think of football don't you? If someone says, 'the Champions League is a big failure', you'd call him foolish won't you? And if Champions League is such a big affair in football, why couldn't Lalit Modi & Co. think of a better name for the cricket version of it?
Whatever the name, it was indeed a failure. If you are a cricket fanatic, and were expecting something as good as, say, the Liverpool-AC Milan (3-3) final of 2005 or the Barcelona-Arsenal (2-1) final of 2006, then you were asking for too much.
Not much was gained from this league. T&T showed a lot of potential, and some guidance to the WI team, some stadia might have become marginally better and some ground workers might have become a little better off. But much more was lost than how much was gained. The most recent one being, Brett Lee being sent back home only the first ODI in the 7-match series in India. What were the chances of Lee not getting injured if there had been no CL? Surely, the chances would have been far less. Does Lee regret it? Even if he does, will he still play in every season of IPL and CL? Only time will tell...
Both IPL and CL were plagiarised brainchildren of Modi. With just one motive: EARN as MUCH as you can. The two seasons of IPL certainly earned him a few crores but not every league will turn out to be as successful in India. People in India are not that crazy about cricket that you'll get a full house for a match between two Aussie teams about whom Indian fans have never even heard! For me, it was a pleasure to see empty chairs and stands. It was a slap on Modi's face. I wanted CL to be a disaster. As a cricket fan I should have loved it, but don't we have enough cricket already? Isn't there an overload of cricket matches these days? Specially T20s? What would you prefer? Injury free Ashes, Champions Trophy or several leagues throughout the year and then match-winners like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaks, Pietersen, Lee not able to represent their countries when they want to? The choice is yours..you will ultimately get what you want to see and not what you are made to see by millionaires just because they want to become billionaires.
The greed for money certainly attracts the players. From that point of view, I think it's fine till IPL because it gives a platform to tier II and III Indian players to play with players like Hayden, Gilchirst, Warne etc. and some money as well. But greed will kill the game. Numerous cricket lovers have already started disliking 50over matches. What will they do when they are bored of T20s? Hopefully, Tests will not get affected. I hope they are not. If the essence of the game dies, the game will not live long too.
I hope Modi gets picked up by aliens or gets raided by the income tax team so that we can get back to what we had before his dominance over Indian cricket and T20s. Or, I hope he thinks about the game for a change and not about his bank balance...
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