That is what worries me the most. Cricket’s financial ambitions rest on one shaky premise; that India will continue to generate enough resources to finance everyone else. To prevent that from happening, each country will have to generate its own revenues, as they had been doing before mega television deals for the ICC became reality. However, having tasted a gulab jamun they are unlikely to be happy with a dry roti. Expectations are now irrational.

Sudden affection

And so this sudden affection for Indian players. The Australian league, expected to debut in 2010, wants the best Indian players to play there so that, in combination with their own playing riches, they can create a product that television and corporate owners will be interested in. They are clear that their economy, and the competition from other sports, notably the AFL and the many forms of rugby that abound there, will not generate the riches that now seem to be regarded as mandatory.

England, sadly, seem disinclined to smell the coffee. They are hoping to strike a hard bargain with India; offering some of their players for a mere 14 days and hoping to get the cream of India’s players to play in their own league beginning 2010 as well. There is an old truth about negotiation; it invariably asks the question: who needs whom more. India staged a very successful IPL without a single player from England. And while there is no doubt that the best English players will add substantially to the IPL, it can survive without them. And I do not see an Indian franchise willing to lock up a lot of money for a player available for no more than two out of the seven weeks.

... contd.