IPL v/s ICL
Cricket is the de facto national sport of India, and its development has been closely tied up with the history of the country, mirroring many of the political and cultural developments around issues such as caste, religion and nationality. Though cricket is indubitably the most popular sport in India, it is not the nation’s official national sport (a distinction held by field hockey).
IPL Vs ICL
ICL:-
Indian Cricket League started in the year 2007. It is administered by BCCI. The format of ICL is Twenty 20. It has 9 city teams and 4 international teams. It started off with a great force and interested the cricket lovers. It received from sum unexpected sector too. ICL’s second league got cancelled because of the Mumbai attacks. Even then there were so many controversies and conflicts which affected the fame of the league. BCCI – the administrator of ICL has not recognized it and hence not recognized by ICC. ICL does not have proper funds to spend for the players and tours for matches. It lacks transparency in the overall business model. ICC conferred that the players who signs up with ICL will lose their official status and registration. Under the direction of BCCI, the contracts with the players were cancelled. Appalled by the state of domestic Indian cricket, Zee TV decided to launch this league as its own Twenty20 domestic series. The first matches were held in October 2007. The ICL sprung into the spotlight due to its head on battle with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Brian Lara was the first international star to be officially drafted to play in the league. It also includes two fully drafted international teams from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Other big names include Chris Harris, Chris Cairns, Shane Bond, Marvan Atapattu, Craig Macmillan, Jason Gillespie, Stuart Law and Michael Bevan with many others.
IPL:-
Indian Premier League is the official International Twenty 20 league with the help of Australian, English and South African Boards. It is revolutionary, based on the franchise model of National Football League and Major League Baseball in the USA. There are 8 teams playing in the IPL. This League has been launched by BCCI have received support from all the other Cricket Boards, and International Players could be drafted into City-based Franchises. Each team has got an “Icon player” who volunteers themselves and gives their team to bid for the players. As the players could earn a great sum of money, the young players are very much interested in participating in this league matches than any other Test series. The first league matches were held in India while the second league was held in South Africa as there was no added security measure available for the players during the Mumbai attacks. This league has a strong support for all the sectors like investors/sponsors, media, sponsorship (DLF), etc. It has a wide reach globally. The game has been likened to Baseball with crowd participation encouraged more strongly than in other forms of the game. It has been greatly acknowledged by people and has made huge profits. Even though many conflicts, controversies and restrictions are raised against the league, IPL overcomes it with so much of compromises. Its next League starts on 12th March 2010.
The future of ICL becomes dark as BCCI allowed its players to play international matches since then many players has returned to their national team including famous players like Shane Bond, Abdul Razzak and others.
ICL was started when India lost the World Cup which made the people angry on our cricket players. Later India won T20 World Cup and became the No: 1 rank Test team which made people to forget ICL.
The huge success of IPL is also a reason for coming down of ICL.
M. Shajahan (09MMC017),
I. M.A. Communication.
