The IPL: A Distraction? View and Counter View

So Ricky Ponting decides to choose country over the Indian Premier League and we all clap our hands in admiration? He cites a packed cricket schedule and cries off the IPL and we are supposed to nod and sympathize? Not quite. We bring you a special report on the divergent views of this conundrum.

Although the concept of club and country events being concurrent is a new one from cricket, it is pretty well established in other sports such as soccer for instance and those players seem to able to manage both with ease, indeed they are expected to juggle both effectively seeing the staggering amounts they are paid, which are regularly reported in the sports news. Cricketers simply need to get used to this new reality of cricket.

Ponting had to have known about the playing schedule of this team before hand, so why make a commitment for the Indian Premier League and then back out citing reasons that already existed? This seems a little insincere to do after the contract is finalised. And to call the IPL a ‘distraction’ seems a tad too convenient. The excuse of “Oh we played badly because we were so very sidetracked by the IPL auction in Goa that we could not concentrate on the game where we were representing our country” seems rather thin.

Not only thin, it is decidedly unprofessional! Surely we are talking about professional cricket players, not about children here, who cannot concentrate on their veggies at meal times because they have been promised a lollypop afterwards! Problem is people are wont to blame money as the root of all evil and are happy to paint as a bad guy anyone who holds out blandishments of money.

And yet when you look at the way things panned out, you do wonder if there is really something to the idea that Indian Premier League is a distraction? Consider the sequence of events as evidence by recent cricket coverage: when the IPL auctions in Goa were concluded on the 6th of February, wherein many of the English players fared extremely well; make a killing really!

Well that was swiftly followed by a mortifying defeat of the English team at the hands of the West Indians. Coincidence? Maybe; but there could well be a connection: imagine the situation in the English dressing room, all contemplating the Indian Premier League with mixed feelings, with some players fetching record amounts, some doing moderately well and some remaining unsold. There would be varying degrees of elation, disappointment, and yes, even envy! Distracting? Yes! Cause for disharmony and unease between the players of the team? Likely, don’t you think? Resulting in poor performance and ultimate defeat? Well it does not seem that unlikely…

So there is the Cricket360 degree view and counter view of this problem. Your thoughts?

Source: www.cricket360.com