IPL vs ICC:

Established cricket at the crossroads?

Jerome JAYARATNE

In the recent past we witnessed one of the most colourful cricket tournaments ever conducted, the IPL challenger series which was filled with excitement and entertainment.

The best of players in world cricket possessing the most lucrative contracts one would ever receive in their sporting careers giving their utmost best for a franchise for their employer and competing against each other and also against their own fellow countrymen for one big prize to be the 'winner' of the tournament and in return this would make ones pay packet even more healthier than what was originally promised prior to the commencement of the extravaganza.

However at the same time this may be one of the most devastating cricket tournaments ever held in hampering the future of ICC's cricketing calendar and also the development of cricket and revenue one could generate for certain full member cricket playing nations.

Most importantly this is an ideal wake up call for many nations who lack the depth of talented crickets in their country.

Over the recent years we have experienced that the game of cricket has been generating huge amounts of money with 'Television Rights" sold at colossal amounts.

It is evident that there is a huge demand for the sport and especially in the sub continent this being the number one sport, TV companies are showing willingness to pay huge sums of monies for television rights backed by their sponsors who have queued up to advertise their products and merchandise on air during matches.

What do we do is the question?

If the sport has such a big demand and seen what it's getting to with the recent developments to world cricket, we as a full member cricket playing nation need to take note of this and change with the times or else we could be left behind trying to compete against countries who have better depth and talent in their cricket.

Cricketers may choose whatever course they desire for their future and that would be entirely up to the individual to decide. We would have to create a structure and get down to producing more depth in the form of talented cricketers who could stand in to a national players position at any given time in whatever form of the game.

The process to this should be clearly understood and organized in a structured manner if we are to reach our goal. It is evident that a cricketer playing only domestic cricket in Sri Lanka having produced healthy performances could not guarantee success at International level.

This proves that the next generation of players on the fringe of playing for the country should have an attractive cricketing calendar in the form of tours inbound and especially outbound.

Having some idea of the wickets in the sub continent and easy to adjust been similar to are local conditions, touring countries such as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England is seen as a very important exercise.

The selection process in the national team is also an important factor if we are to reach the goal we all aspire to. In the less competitive matches at national level we need to blood the younger players sometimes even at the cost of a good player if we are to reach our objective.

One must not to forget that there has been cricketers born with talent and then many have improved their talent and skill over the years but experience is hard to come by as you need to be put in deep water learn to whether the storm and survive if one's good enough as this will show what one's made of as a cricketer.

The writer is a former cricketer and now a coach