Indian Betting League

IPL (Indian Premier League) er IBL is what I would like to call the latest money machine of India.

A brain child of

 Lalit Modi a scion of a conglomorate, IPL caught the market within no time. With Cricket as the youngest religion of the country, involving modern day gods and goddesses (in term of

 their followers) like Sachin, Sourov Ganguly, Yuvraj and flamboyant brands like Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Mallya, failure was not an option. It is money, money, money all over the place. 

Betting is not new in cricket especially in the shorter versions of it and 20-20 format provides good volume and more interest on this business due to its shorter duration. We have seen great stars of the game have a shameful exit by getting involved in betting 

and match fixing scandals. The recent announcement of competitions through SMS adds an official version to the underground betting racket.

SMS

 competitons are common in the Indian TV arena, more and more programs invite participation through SMS but the reason why I see the IPL SMS competitions dangerous is because it has the potential to burn a deep hole in a poor man's pocket before he realizes it. It is like stealing someone's money and in such a large scale of small pockets. The options are so tempting even for a person like me who hardly follows the game that it will ensure multiple transactions from each mobile phone of the nation. 

The nailbiting finishes of every match being played which invariably drags till the last over last ball scenario plants a doubt in my mind that these are all orchastrated moves. Similar to WWF, one goes boom boom boom and once there's a pause the other takes on. At times the doubt almost gets confirmed when some insignificant part-time bowler gets surprise valuable wickets while the professional experts get beaten-up. 

 With these we get to see, read and hear of off the ground tantrums of team owners, team politics, sponsorship money and of course not the least the sizzling cheerleaders. Indeed a good entertainment, it is...!

As I generally say, where there is more money and Indians, there must be corruption. I see the idea is being over exploited to maximize everyone's earnings in a short time and I fear that the golden egg laying goose will soon be killed out of greed.

P.S: My post when the idea of leagues for cricket was implementedinitially : http://indiaeveryday.blogspot.com/2007/08/india-vs-india.html