Why just blame the IPL?

Lubdhak Chatterjee
05 January 2013, 12:03 PM IST

India's yet another series loss, this time to arch rivals Pakistan at home has triggered intense debate on the causes behind the consistent poor performance of the team. Amidst the oodles of views and opinions pouring in, some have asked for skipper's head, some saying Fletcher really has never fit into the scheme of things over the last year and half. And some even figuring out Indian Premier League as the main culprit! Is it mere frustration after repeated losses and a lame excuse? Or does this really have any substance?

Not just a few journalists and fans in social media, but even ex cricketers like Imran Khan and Sunil Gavaskar have voiced their disappointment over IPL's influence on Indian cricket. Take a look at what the justifications they give. According to them, the cash rich lucrative Indian Premier league have taken away the focus the players had in international games. The big amounts paid to them by their respective franchises have in a way given them a sense of security and consequently national assignments don't hold that importance to the players like it used to do earlier. Add to that, too much of T20 cricket had cast a detrimental impact on the technique of upcoming players who later on find it difficult to cope up with the predicament they face in alien conditions, specially in the longer format of the game.

May be some of these points are valid, but there is a positive side too. To share the dressing room with their idols is in itself not only a big achievement for young domestic players,who have received the much needed exposure because of IPL, but most importantly it's a learning experience for them. India won 15 out of the 29 tests they played, not losing a single series for a span of 3 years between August 2008-August 2011. Their golden run was instrumental in achieving the no 1 position in ICC Test Rankings for the first time. Form in the 50-over format was impressive too as they had a win percentage of over 50 with the World Cup victory after 28 years in 2011 being the pinnacle of success. And most importantly, all this happened after IPL had kicked off for the very first time in 2008. Off course not giving credit to the t20 league for India's success during this period, but surely also cant single it out as the sole culprit for the slum in form later on.

Plus IPL is not a tournament that is totally isolated. Australia, England, South Africa have been hosting domestic T20 competitions since many years. Even cricket boards in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh have started their respective franchise based tournaments since last year. Its true that IPL gets maximum publicity because of its star studded line up both on and off the field, but we also have the likes of Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and many more in the domestic arena.

Yes we need to improve on them, the kind of infrastructure we provide to our players here in India. Focus should be more on Ranji Trophy when selectors meet, encouraging more and more to play test cricket. But surely that doesn't mean that one has to scrap IPL from the scenario completely. Simply blaming the IPL wont serve as any solution. After all the criticism needs to be constructive. Only then India can find a way out of the trouble they find themselves in right now!