IPL!

Just got the news that Gautam Gambhir will not be available for the West Indies tour because of injury!! Frustrating!! A bad news for people like us!! There was a time when IPL was a boon for me. I got a chance to see more and more cricket, to see my favorite retired players playing again and to see the passion of talented young players on the stadium. But now after reading the news about various injuries and test retirement, my heart is so broken! I don’t want IPL on the cost of injuries which keep my cricketers away from ODI & Test series. I don’t want IPL on the cost of retirement of my cricketers from Test and ODI cricket. This is ruining & killing the real cricket. I disagree with the players who are taking retirement from Test & ODI's to save themselves for T20 cricket. There was a time when every cricketer had a dream to play in whites; to play test cricket was the dream of every cricketer but now it is the IPL!! Strange, how things have changed!

I am worried for one more thing…..where is the loyalty gone! The players from Punjab are playing for Pune, the players from Mumbai are playing for Punjab or from Rajasthan. So can you expect them to give their all while playing? Do you expect that a team win will matter so much for them? I don’t agree! They are just playing because they are getting paid for it with no enthusiasm for their team or for their game! It's just us who are attached to our team so much! I am personally so much attached to Rajasthan Royals that each and every win or loss is similar to winning or losing a war for me! But what about the players? Sad  to say but they are not much attached! They are just playing a game and  after losing, its like a normal day for them. Since they are not from Rajasthan, it doesn’t make so much difference for them!! It's not just about my team but it doesn’t make any difference to most of them! Harsh reality!

Another important point to discuss here is the selection criteria. Why BCCI is considering the IPL performance as selection criteria for the National team? Why the hell Ranji and other domestic leagues are for? There are so many good players like Ajinkya & Rayudu who has exceptional records in Ranji but is it necessary for them to perform in IPL to get a chance! A player who is doing well in IPL is getting a chance easily to play in the National team then why can’t a good Ranji player?

So what's the solution of these problems? My biggest concern is the loss of real cricket in future! According to my opinion, IPL should be limited to Retired and Domestic players. Those players who are currently playing in their national teams should not be allowed to play in it! In that case, there won't be a need to make a special window for IPL and the players will be easily available for IPL. The retired players will have a good time playing cricket again who all are already so passionate for cricket. We had already seen their performances in previous IPL's which proves my statement. And yeah, for domestic players who need to prove and showcase their talent across the world could easily do so with the help of IPL as they are already doing!

Well, this is just my opinion and any one can differ from it. I just wrote all this as a true cricket fan! I don’t want IPL to be just Injured Players League or Indian Paisa League!!