Indian Premier League - A worry of a captain or an opportunity for an youngster

IPL is drawing the attention of the promising cricketers with lucrative offers. Chennai splashed out $1.5 million (773,700 pounds) for Dhoni while Hyderabad paid $1.35m for Symonds.Indian paceman Ishant Sharma was bought by Kolkata for $950,000 and his partner Rudra Pratap Singh fetched $875,000 and was bought by Hyderabad. The matches played in 20-20 format are more exciting and
less time-consuming than the ODIs. In such matches the team has to perform above than their best and execute their winning strategy in the limited 20 overs.Also the youngstars have to prove their mettle to make a mark in world cricket.

The IPL offers are even more higher than the income earned by a cricketer from international matches.The adverse impact is that it may lessen the interest of a player in ODIs and domestic cricket due to fat packages in IPL matches. So Ponting was concerned when Andrew Symonds was in a fix whether to play against Pakistan in the coming Aussie-Pak series or earn a whopping pay(5.3 cr) fromthe IPL. He complained that ICC should have adopted the twenty-20 format earlier.He held the opinion that the IPL temptation could spoil the composition of the National team. Such concerns may also rise among the other captains of other international teams. Now such a situation has arrived that the shine of the ODI and test matches may be faded away by the IPL business. CEO of ICC Malcolm Speed said that the International cricketers are coached and developed by their countries and they are in demand by the IPL but their primary obligation is to their country.He also warned cricketing nations the schedule of the billion-dollar Twenty20 tournament should not dictate the international fixtures. Even Mohammad Kaif said that no cricketer worth his salt would consider it more important than donning national colours.

But such cash-rich offers may spellbind any novice or virtuoso. If the schedules coincide or if the time span between the international matches and IPL matches is small then a player may not get suffcient time to be with his home team to get the strategies or practice (suppose for a test match) and it can lead to both his failure and that of his team. Even differences in earnings can droop some players chosen in the IPL. Also it will be very hard for a player to relinquish such offers especially if any international match comes in the way. I am not against the IPL , but measures should be taken by ICC to favour everyone and every condition to preserve the integrity of the international matches from all angles.