Writing in the same columns last Wednesday, former foreign secretary Jagat Mehta came up with the idea of a SAARC Pentangular whereby all of South Asia could be divided into five regions and cricket teams representing the best from each of these (irrespective of their nationality) would compete. In a way, he thinks, this would revive the pre-partition Pentangular where the Hindus, Parsis, Christians, Muslims and the Railways competed for national honours. There was no bitterness, no sectarian feelings, it was all pristine, joyful cricket. In a field crowded with the great minds of our foreign service and strategic community that dominates the Track II business, this is one of the most original ideas to emerge in a long time. I, obviously, have no quibbles with it. I am only looking for ways to take it forward in a world that is less perfect than the genteel pre-independence decades when cricket was played by gentlemen unencumbered by logos, and watched by small crowds that were “knowledgeable” rather than, well, enthusiastic. But in Jagat Mehta’s idealism lies the seed of what could be fine-tuned into a great cricketing idea. Cricket today needs to be a television spectacle. It must have overflowing stands because that not only brings gate monies but also makes for better TV, cricketers need (and deserve) to make serious money and so the game has to be as much about commercial logos and endorsements as about national or regional pride. With the subcontinent emerging as the power centre of world cricket, and India its centre of gravity, isn’t it time to think of a domestic (Indian) cricket league to attract not only the finest talent from around the world, but also to put good ol’— and in any case dying — County cricket out of business. From times when the best and the finest talent from around the world took pride in playing for an English club, County cricket has now declined into insignificance — what, for example, has it contributed to international cricket lately, than perhaps helping Shoaib Akhtar to develop his remarkable phonetic doosra, the Durham-Pindi “English” that he speaks with such unaffected panache on camera? Their current heroics against the West Indies notwithstanding, cricket in England has been declining for a long time now and it is a pity we have not risen to take away the claim for being the home of world cricket. Sunil Gavaskar had seen it coming many years ago, when he mocked at English cricket by asking who comes to watch the game there, except a few beer-drinking old men and a couple of dogs. That was quite correct and probably while the same dogs and old men are still watching the game, several counties have tried to shore up their fortunes by hiring subcontinental (mainly Pakistani, because they don’t have a real domestic season back home) stars to attract ethnic crowds. The current warming up should persuade us to think more creatively, to leverage this new equation for the sake of world cricket, as much as an instrument for furthering our own national interest. Government willing, it should be quite simple to convert our very own Ranji and Duleep trophies into internationalised leagues. Each club, like County cricket, could be allowed to hire two foreign players per season. Of course, it will be a bigger league than what we have now, so a lot more of Indian young talent will also get an opportunity to play with, and against, the world’s best. It is shocking today to see Ranji Trophy matches that not even a few old men pay to watch. Wouldn’t it be different if, say, a Punjab versus Uttar Pradesh Ranji game involved a Ricky Ponting and Shoaib Akhtar on one side and Brian Lara and Chris Cairns on the other? Or, if a laggard like Himachal Pradesh or Assam, could hire the services of an Inzamam and a Jayasuriya? This may sound like a fantasy. But it isn’t that impossible either. Even a great international star makes no more than 30-40,000 pounds (say, Rs 30 lakh) per season. It would be quite possible for several Indian clubs to better than that in return for the kind of benefits it would bring. This would do many things at the same time. First of all, it would improve the standards of domestic cricket. More of our grounds will improve their facilities, a Mohali may come up in Lucknow or Allahabad, and once this league catches the fancy of the crowds, money will pour in, through the gate, as well as television. This is just what would create real competition among the 24-hour sports channels. International stars will bring the crowds and international media attention, domestic talent will flower in their company and, at least within the region, where four of the ten test cricket playing nations are located, India would become the home of the game. Cricketing infrastructure would improve across the board as state associations and their grounds will host many more matches than they do now — no longer will we then see the silly spectacle of a Ferozeshah Kotla being cleared of the weeds on the eve of an international match every other year. Finally, this would redress some of the imbalance in our cricket, where the top 20 or so make loads of money, while the rest still travel second class, live out of dormitories and subsist on modest paychecks from benign employers. It is not even such a complex or new idea. It’s been done in football with so much success around the world, in fact it’s worked so well that inter-club rivalries are now stronger than those between nations. Which brings us to the political and diplomatic gains such an idea would bring for us. If such a league were to get established, stars from India and Pakistan will be its mainstay. Brands that sell across the two nations —Samsung, LG, Coke, Pepsi and, who knows, by then regional airlines and domestic brands too — would have a huge commercial stake in it. The fans, on both sides of the border, could even begin to see the game in a transnational sort of a way, who knows. Anyway, this would raise the costs of another border stand-off, of another recourse to terrorism, that much higher. It would also take away from our governments — and thank God for that — some of the discretions they can sometimes use so whimsically, visas, overflight rights, commercial dealings, rail and road connections, and so on. In a way, it would also help us leverage India’s overwhelming size and power in the region in a most benignly constructive way. At the India Today Conclave earlier this month, President Musharraf made the point that since India was so much larger than its neighbours, it was important that it should show greater generosity towards them rather than come across as a bully. Sports is a marvellous thing where your size can be an advantage to all, while keeping the playing field entirely level. After all, even if India is seven times Pakistan’s size, it can only field the same number of players in a match as any other team! These are good times for cricket. When was the last time you had a visiting US secretary of state preface his major speeches on both sides of the border with compliments for each one’s “magnificent” cricket team? It also so happened, most conveniently, that when he was in India we won a game and when he reached Islamabad, the Pakistanis managed to get even. If you see the warmth with which thousands of Indian supporters have been greeted in Pakistan, the spirit in which the game has been played and if you believe that this bonhomie is for real, this should prove one thing: That sport can do a million times more to improve our relations, to remove misconceptions and prejudices and to lessen insecurities, than a hundred Track II seminars. This series has already shown us the way. So let us pick up the thread from Jagat Mehta and build on some idea of this sort. After all, why should we not capitalise on perhaps the only business where we not only have the largest market share, but also the largest pool of talent? And so what if cricket is played only by ten nations when Americans even have the temerity to call their baseball league the World Series! Write to sg@expressindia.com
