As everyone is aware IPL (Indian Premier League) is the latest sensation that has been put forth in the world of cricket. Created by BCCI and sanctioned by ICC, IPL is a twenty-twenty cricket competition. There are totally 8 teams in the league and each team will play the other 7 teams home and away, the top four teams at the end of the group stages will proceed through to the semi finals. The magnitude of each team was confirmed when the winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on January 24, 2008. The official list of bidders consists of Mukesh Ambani & Reliance Industries(Mumbai Indians), Vijay Malaya & U.B group(Bangalore Royal Challengers), Shah Rukh Khan & Red Chillies Entertainment(Kolkata Night Riders), Deccan Chronicle(Hyderabad), India Cements(Chennai Super Kings), GMR Holdings(Delhi Daredevils), Preity Zinta & Ness Wadia(Mohali), Emerging India(Rajasthan Royals). The total auction fetched around 720 million US $. Due to the presence of icon players like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni etc IPL is expected to draw more people to watch the matches. The telecast rights were given to India's Sony Television group and Singapore based World Sport Group. In sum IPL has pumped a record revenue of about 1026 million US $.
Such a big sum can act like a double headed sword. The positive aspect of it is that all the low profile cricket players can earn more money in a very quick span of time and the excess money can be used to improve the cricket-infrastructure such as ground maintenance etc all over the country. The negative aspect of this is that when upcoming players with good talent and potential see such a huge some of money in their hands, they tend to get lazy and lose the focus in playing the game. Nowadays cricket players tend to endorse a lot of products and hence they completely get diverted from the game. The other disadvantage that is agreed by a lot of people is that sufficient attention is not given to other sports such as football, hockey, badminton etc. So there is very less scope for other sports and sportsmen to grow in our country. For example, a cricketer is paid several lakhs or even crores by the BCCI every year, it is found that a hockey player is paid only Rs 5000 per match. Even if a cricketer fails for several matches in a row he is bound to get the same amount of money which he was offered, whereas a hockey player loses Rs 1000 every match if he fails to score a goal. This shows the plight of other sports in our country.
Thus to conclude with, though IPL has huge entertainment value associated with itself it is very important that team spirit and "playing for the nation" attitude is maintained. If money is given is more importance then IPL would act like a curse to Cricket.
Such a big sum can act like a double headed sword. The positive aspect of it is that all the low profile cricket players can earn more money in a very quick span of time and the excess money can be used to improve the cricket-infrastructure such as ground maintenance etc all over the country. The negative aspect of this is that when upcoming players with good talent and potential see such a huge some of money in their hands, they tend to get lazy and lose the focus in playing the game. Nowadays cricket players tend to endorse a lot of products and hence they completely get diverted from the game. The other disadvantage that is agreed by a lot of people is that sufficient attention is not given to other sports such as football, hockey, badminton etc. So there is very less scope for other sports and sportsmen to grow in our country. For example, a cricketer is paid several lakhs or even crores by the BCCI every year, it is found that a hockey player is paid only Rs 5000 per match. Even if a cricketer fails for several matches in a row he is bound to get the same amount of money which he was offered, whereas a hockey player loses Rs 1000 every match if he fails to score a goal. This shows the plight of other sports in our country.
Thus to conclude with, though IPL has huge entertainment value associated with itself it is very important that team spirit and "playing for the nation" attitude is maintained. If money is given is more importance then IPL would act like a curse to Cricket.
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