Associate Cricket

These are dark days for cricket, specially for the Associate Nations. With the ICC deciding to cull all Associate members other than Zimbabwe from the next World Cup scheduled for 2015 and reduce the number of participating nations to 10, the Associate Nations have lost the one big stage they had to perform and learn. The fact that the Associates in general are proving themselves to be push-overs in the current ICC World Cup 2011 vindicates ICC's stand.

However, this development in the long spells doom for Cricket. The sport cannot rely on solely the Sub-Continent to finance the game and a few top playing nations to keep it competitive. The looming threat of IPL and T20 cricket make the very existence of ODI cricket uncertain. In this grave circumstances, the ICC and the influential BCCI have a huge responsibility to make cricket a sustainable sport in the long run by promoting Cricket beyond the traditional borders.

It is in this extreme scenario, IPL, known as the Great Indian Tamasha can play a critical role in popularizing Cricket in the Associate Nations. IPL would love to expand its fan-base beyond the existing countries to generate more revenue and accomplish its dream to rival EPL. For this, IPL needs to take drastic steps.

The best way to earn fans is to provide opportunity for their local boys to play. Obliging the IPL teams to maintain atleast 3 players from Associate Nations in their roster, would provide atleast 30 players from all parts of the world an opportunity to train on world-class equipment with the best in the business. Also, keeping a quota of minimum one associate player required to turn out for an IPL match would pique the curiosity of the Associate Nations who would be interested to see their sportsmen perform on such a big stage. This act would also increase awareness about the potential Associate Cricket has. Also, the quality players emerging from Associate Nations would increase the competitiveness of the playing standards of IPL.

The above mentioned steps would boost the image of cricket beyond the traditional cricketing nations. This, in the long run will bring Cash Inflows to Associates, they desperately need to develop world-class infrastructure. With significant improvements in infrastructure as well as increased exposure to top-level cricket, we can surely hope the Associate Nations to raise their bar and improve playing standards and make Cricket a more competitive and a sustainable sport. For example, Usain Bolt, worlds fastest man was inclined to join cricket, but the poor infrastructure in place was a big reason why he joined Athletics and cricket lost a potential superstar.

And what does the IPL gain from this? Increased competitiveness, larger fan-base achieved by these measure are a prerequisite to rival top leagues like La Liga and EPL.

This is just a humble opinion, but I sincerely believe my stand holds merit and hope someone acts on it.