Champions League? Give us a break

 

 

Imagine, T&T is the West Indies champion but they are forced to enter a playoff to get into the main draw, while the fourth place team in the IPL, the Mumbai Indians, will be in there playing in the main draw. There was the foolish excuse made by an Indian official who said that the Mumbai Indians were given passage to the main draw because of the fact that they are defending champions. This is one press conference I would not have wanted to miss for the world because I would have asked him the simple question ‘where was New South Wales in 2010’. New South Wales, the Australian Champions, defeated T&T in the finals of the inaugural Champions League held in India in 2009. However, they were not given automatic entry into the 2010 tournament, which was played in South Africa, and did not feature at all. Here it is that the winners and the second place, third place and now fourth place IPL team is ushered into the main draw. While the “CHAMPION TEAMS” from five other countries have to go into the qualifying stages with only two moving on to the main draw. There has been talk about the Indian teams being more attractive and will bring in television dollars and keep the turnstiles moving. I agree with this because someone has to pay the bills. 

 

 

My issue is with the fact that it is called the Champions League. They should then change the name of the tournament. I would like to suggest IPL teams vs the Rest of the World. This would be an apt title and then the ICC can call all the champion teams in their full member countries and organise a true champions league for them. This is not the only case where the BCCI has shown total disregard for their fellow members by putting its own interests above that of the game’s. Much of the game is controlled by the BCCI because it controls enough votes to block any proposal put forward at the ICC board meetings. The reason for this is some countries would not survive without the financial opportunities India provides. Just take a look at their stance concerning the Decision Review System (DRS). One of the reasons the BCCI was against it was that its superstars had such an embarrassing experience with it in the early days. The BCCI is indifferent to Test cricket and pre-occupied with money and Twenty20 cricket. India’s apparent indifference towards Test cricket and its response towards some of the key issues —  the international calendar and the mix of the different types of cricket; its attitude to the earlier ICC corruption inquiries; its indifference to the urgency to introduce anti-doping rules; the rumoured corruption hanging over the IPL; its attitude to the DRS — are all examples of disappointing decisions.