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 There are many reasons why I believe the IPL could be the best thing to happen to Indian cricket. The need has often been stated but now there is a path that is visible; amidst the jungle, a trail has emerged and we must follow it with hope. I do not know if there are speedbreakers on the way but what I do know is that it is the only option ahead at the moment.

In this column I have often spoken of my dream; that Indian cricket will have parents who will nurture it. At the moment Indian cricket is the poor little rich kid and relatives with different shades of character are befriending him hoping to get a slice of the pie. They want to see the kid get richer, not necessarily better. Being rich and being good are not always synonyms. Indian cricket needs nurturing but how does a flagrantly commercial proposition achieve this end?

Quite simply because, in being selfish, you sometimes find the right approach. Return on investment is very often a good path towards excellence. When being good is the only way to make profits, you are forced to be good and that is at the heart of all successful commercial enterprise. Bidders have paid large amounts of money to own franchises and since they are not in the business of losing money, they will try and produce the best possible teams. To them this is merely a new line of business. Reliance built world class petrochemical complexes, GMR are building fine airports; in either case excellence is the way to profits. I believe it will be the same with the cricket teams they own.

And so, just as they pick the right project managers and sales executives, they will pick the right players and instill in them the need to play to a certain standard. As employees get sacked for non-performance, players will too and in course of time they will realise that you don’t play this game merely to be in the team but to win. Team players will be rewarded, in football the flamboyant striker gets a great deal but so does the solid mid-fielder who may not sell t-shirts but who breaks down opposition attacks.

Occasionally, just as the personnel manager’s nephew might get an out of turn interview, so will a player who knows the right people, but in the harsh world of performance and results, only the best will stay. Selectors will be accountable, so will coaches.

And development in cricket, and younger, newer players, will become an investment. I can see franchisees picking young kids and putting them on long-term contracts; maybe not even playing them for a couple of years till they are ready but ensuring that when they are, they are available only to them. One of the greatest problems in our cricket is the talent we lose in the age group 16-18 because of selectors who are not accountable and occasionally lured towards more personal objectives. The other major issue is, rightly, the need for education and a job. I can already see franchisees addressing both issues; send a 16-year-old to school by day and get him to train and play cricket by evening. If he makes it, the world is his oyster, else he has a qualification that the franchisee can find useful for employment elsewhere.

But for that to happen a franchisee must have more to do than a mere month and a half of 20 overs cricket. I believe the BCCI should begin a divestment process where all cricket is slowly moved towards private ownership. A Reliance or a Kingfisher should have three teams; a 20-over team, a 50-over team and a 4-day team. The top franchise of the year will be the one that produces the best results over all three forms. Two years is a good enough time to wait and see how the franchise model works and to iron out problems that will inevitably arise. Then we must go full hog.

We won’t because there are too many vested interests. Power without accountability is a potent drug and state associations who manage the dreaded vote will dig in their heels. But even here a solution can present itself. The experience with public sector units now managed by the private sector is that the moment there is a reward for performance everybody delivers. The person who wouldn’t look up as he sat on files gets a move on. Even state associations under private ownership will deliver.

The selectors will then only have to pick from the best that have already been picked. The job of finding talent will already have been effectively outsourced and we won’t need to have this stupid, self-defeating situation of 27 first class teams. Under a franchisee system where the best talent will be sourced wherever it is from, 15 teams will do just fine.

We are on the threshold of something very big. All it needs is a touch of statesmanship and an over-riding love of Indian cricket. The poor little rich kid can become a strapping, wise young man. The next two years can lay the foundation for the next fifty.