Of sizzling new rivalries and new IPL teams!

Finally makes peace between N. Srinivasan and Lalit Modi

There are two cricketing rivalries which have stood the tests of time, an Australia-England one that plays for the Ashes, and an India-Pakistan one that plays for everything and cricket! However, if ICC’s latest World T20 qualifiers are anything to go by, then, there could be another big one that could be added to the aforementioned list; something that could go on to assume colossal proportions in the years to come!

USA will be taking on Afghanistan in the Middle East in February, as a part of the qualifiers for the ICC World T20 that will be played in the month of April next year. The tournament is an eight-nation tournament, with the top two from them going on to be the part of the main event in the West Indies in 2010 in April.

The ICC World T20 is a 12-nation tournament, and the top ten countries – all the test playing nations – have already gained automatic qualifications. Apart from these ten, the top six countries in the world, and two special invitees from the ICC are featuring in this qualifier. These include Afghanistan, Scotland, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, UAE, USA and Canada. While the remaining six are direct qualifiers for these qualifiers, USA and UAE have been doled out special invites. USA and Afghanistan have a political history going on for the last decade or so, and this match could spark off a new cricketing rivalry in the future.

Group A consists of Ireland and Scotland apart from these two, whereas Group B has Kenya, Netherlands, Canada and UAE. The top two from each group will then join a Super Fours group where each team will play the others once – except the team qualified from their own group – and the top two will not only qualify for the finals but also for the ICC World T20 – the T20 equivalent of the World Cup.

Back in India with the Indian Premier League, the BCCI has finally ended all speculations about the future of Lalit Modi as the chief of the tournament. He has been assigned the job since 2012, after it had been claimed in the media that he had lost his job. It was a long-standing feud between Modi and the secretary of the cricket board, N. Srinivasan that had led to these speculations, but the President of the Board, Shashank Manohar has laid all this to rest.

While the ego battle – or whatever else can be used to describe it – is definitely something for the Board members to rectify internally and move ahead, I wonder whether there is any ‘Succession Plan’ in place in the eventuality that Modi does end his reign as the leader of the pack. Because, while handling the BCCI is one thing, it is quite a different and a more challenging issue to handle a tournament of the magnitude of IPL without someone with the desired expertise.

In the meantime, Modi has also announced that the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League which will be played in 2011, will have two extra teams. There will, thus, be ten sides, and 94 games in all, making it a really grand event. However, what will not be so grand will be the fact that every side will thus play a minimum of 18 games, and hence travel as much through the couple of months through the length and the breadth of the country. Fatigue and tiredness will be a concern for all the players, as will be injury issues and fitness woes. Whether the rule that the Indian players can play a maximum of 12 games will make too much of a difference will remain to be seen, but the increase in the matches will definitely have its effect on viewership as well, as the viewer-fatigue is as big an issue as its players’ counterpart.

So, will there be a rule regarding the maximum number of games a fan can watch as well? Now that would be an interesting call, won’t it?!