Khalidoscope: Take a bow BCCI, IPL

Shabash IPL, bravo BCCI. More than just cricket lovers, our entire nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the IPL, its progeny for proving to the far-flung cricketing world that it is second to none not only as regards financial acumen but also organisational ability.

Compelled, at dauntingly short notice, to shift the showpiece event (which it pioneered last year amidst forebodings of doom) to South Africa due to security concerns, BCCI has come up trumps in almost every respect.

Action-packed

If last Sunday's pulsating final, coming as it did at the end of a long 37-day action-packed cricket carnival, had all the ingredients to slake the unquenchable thirst of aficionados of the slam-bang variety, the spectacular closing ceremony would surely have made even the most cynical Indian proud.

That said, due credit must also go to the South African cricket board for making superb arrangements and providing world-class facilities for players, officials and spectators.

After the experience of passing this stern examination with flying colours, the host nation can justifiably promise better when hosting next year's Soccer World Cup, indisputably the greatest sporting show on earth in terms of worldwide television audience and a grander spectacle than even the Olympics.

Thanks to Modi

To be fair, it is difficult to pinpoint any deficiency of significance in the conduct of the lucrative Jamboree in the Jungle, immaculately marshalled by the indefatigable and resourceful Lalit Modi.

Self-proclaimed traditionalists who swear by cricket being a "gentleman's sport" continue to point fingers at what they consider excessive commercial exploitation of the game, and at what they perceive as bastardization of the traditional five-day event, characterised by sophistication and genteel, cut-and-thrust subtleties.

While contrasting the 'dignified' behaviour of crowds at Test matches, these 'purists' with professedly refined sensibilities, confess to being nauseated at the IPL 'tamaasha', by its tawdriness and its crass, plebeian supporters.

These gentlemen are offended by the hoopla and razzmatazz, the in-your-face Bollywood pizzazz, the consuming Americanisation of the game, witness the raucous music, skimpily-clad cheerleaders, baseball caps, dugouts, and the commerce-driven, distracting 'strategy' (more correctly 'revenue') breaks.

Chucking problem

And they are appalled at the corrupting of the game's vernacular, evidenced by expressions such as 'batter', instead of the time-honoured 'batsman'.

They fear that, if the trend continues, it's only a matter of time before "bowlers" will be termed "pitchers", especially given the impotence of the ICC in coming up with a universally acceptable solution to the vexed problem of "chucking".

Then there are those who, in the belief that there's much more to life than cricket and more cricket, object to the 'overkill' in our media, meaning the long duration of the event, which featured 59 matches this year.

But then, there are also the young aficionados in an increasingly youthful country, and the neophytes who just cannot have enough of the slam-bang game.

There have even been nudge-nudge, wink-wink suggestions by conspiracy theorists, of betting and worse, match-fixing, in this year's IPL.

In the absence of proof, these insinuations deserve to be consigned to the rubbish bin, but this is not to imply that the ICC should not beef up its watchdog role.

If there is an incontrovertible criticism of this edition of the IPL, it is the one concerning fatigue factor.

There is the undeniable possibility that the physically-draining event, in the wake of a hectic, energy-sapping, injury-inducing schedule, could affect the team's chances in next month's T20 in England, given its notoriously undistinguished record of lack of sustained physical fitness as compared to other teams.