Every season of IPL seems to have some controversy or the other. IPL being an event of such a huge magnitude, is bound to be embroiled in one controversy or the other. Here’s a low down on how one of the biggest properties in world cricket has suffered because of controversies over the years.
It all began in Season one where ‘SLAPGATE’(Harbhajan Vs Sreesanth on the field!) was all over the news. Controversy raised its ugly head in the second season again but this time it was even before the season began.
IPL 2 had to be shifted out of India due to the non availability of security forces for major part of the league as it coincided with the general parliamentary elections in the country.
IPL 3 was the swan song for Lalit Modi, widely considered to be the brain child behind IPL, but he had to leave with all the allegations of financial irregularities, favoritism, stake in franchises and the list of his crimes just goes on and on.
IPL 4 had two new teams in the roster but two of the already existing teams (KXIP and RR) were lodged in a legal tussle with the BCCI and post IPL 4 the newest addition Kochi Tuskers Kerala were disbanded after only one season.
IPL 5 was arguably the closest and most watched season of all the previous seasons however controversy couldn’t be far from it. Spot fixing scandal rocked the IPL where a news channel conducted a sting operation and few uncapped Indian players were found guilty of the crime.
IPL 6 is just one day old. But the controversies just don’t want to lie down. Two controversies have already taken place. First took place in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where there is uproar against the killings of Tamils in Sri Lanka during the LTTE war and killings of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan coastal navy on a regular basis.
The TN government has now decided to not allow any Sri Lankan cricketer to take part in the matches taking place in the state (Chennai to be precise!).
Second took place in our very own state of Maharashtra. The state is facing one of the severest drought situations in the last 40 years.
While some say it’s a man made calamity, but we can leave this argument to the politicians! Due to this, various political parties have demanded that the matches taking place in Maharashtra (Mumbai & Pune) should be moved out of the state as huge amounts of water that will be used by the two grounds (Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai & MCA Stadium, Pune), this water instead should be provided to drought affected areas.
However, now the situation seems to have died down and the matches would indeed go ahead in these stadiums as scheduled. In my personal opinion, this is a fantastic opportunity for the BCCI and the two franchises to capitalize. At the end of (or during) the tournament, they should give away a certain percentage of the proceeds earned from the matches to the drought affected areas.
This would help the areas to tackle the drought situation and work as an awesome CSR exercise. A similar activity was conducted by all the franchises when the IPL was held in South Africa. Huge sums of money were provided as charity to the underprivileged kids in South Africa. Though this was a very good deed by the IPL and Franchises, a similar activity in India would do no harm to the tournament.
To conclude I can only say that the tournament has just begun and anything (& everything) will happen in the next two months, only hoping that the cricket does the talking and nothing else!
Next year’s IPL again coincides with the General Parliamentary Elections in the country, will it be Déjà vu all over again! We can only wait and watch.