T20 Cricket News

The sports minister of India, MS Gill has come down strongly on the IPL for commercialising cricket at the cost of its spirit and rules of the game. In an interview with IBNLive, Gill also questioned the conflict of interest arising out of the involvement of BCCI functionaries, with the IPL franchises.

"… the BCCI, they have a direct interest as owners of teams, as people who have a direct benefit from it [IPL] and this is something very dangerous," Gill said. "They have also used the rules against another rival league [ICL]. But the controlling body has to be for India, for cricket for the long term. It has to be totally uninvolved."

Lalit Modi, the chairman and commissioner of the IPL is the vice-president of the BCCI. N. Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary is a top functionary of India Cements, the company that owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise, while Kris Srikkant, the chief national selector is an ambassador for the Chennai side.

"Those who are to make rules for everyone, for all aspects of the game and keeping in view the interest of the game and the country and the long term, have to be totally apart from being involved in IPL in any way," Gill said.

Gill accused the IPL of changing the rules and conditions to favour batsmen in the name of entertainment, thereby severely diminishing the bowlers' role in the game. "The bowler is only the victim and the bat.. now you have mongoose bat. I look forward to a cobra bat. The boundaries have been shortened I think, as I hear. The whole thing is to entertain the masses. The bowler is just an instrument for this promotion," Gill said.

Gill cautioned that Twenty20 cricket posed a serious threat to the longer formats of the game. "The five-day Test is under challenge and you see nobody turns up for it, crowds have already been moved away. Even the 50-over game is reduced to Twent20. I sometimes say jokingly that we'll go to T5 and then T1 and then half an over," Gill said.

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