Wake up call

This goes out to all fans of the game of Cricket in India.

The quality of the cricket played in the just concluded Indian Cricket League has me in awe. Tremendous passion and unsurpassed dedication of the players resulted in amazing quality of cricket. It would be foolish to assume that the intensity of these highly professional players would be any more or less if they were playing for their home countries. Every ball bowled, every shot played and every ball fielded that I have seen had "International" quality stamped all over it.

It is time we, the fans, woke up and start raising our voice against the monopolistic and restrictive ways of the BCCI (Our Country even has a law against it) maybe it is not being invoked as BCCI is probably not a trader! or are they? They trade millions of dollars worth of sponsorships, ticketing revenues and Ads for our eye-balls. They get to make more money because we, the fans of cricket, watch all games where India plays. The BCCI had to launch their own league because they saw the threat from ICL coming their way, growing larger and coming at them faster that they had anticipated. If fans of this country get to watch great quality cricket who is this BCCI to try and stop it? If they have got what it takes then they should try and take on the ICL on a level playing field and let the quality of cricket and programming decide who the viewers flock to. By threatening Advertisers, by banning players and arm twisting media organizations the BCCI is only looking after its own petty interests. The sufferers are young players who have to put everything on the line. The Sufferers are we the fans of Indian Cricket who will probably never see the swashbuckling Ambatti Rayudu play for the Indian team if BCCI is allowed to carry on the way it is. Maybe it is time for the Government of India to step in and decide if the interests of the board are greater than that of the game and its followers. Maybe it is time for us to tell the world what we feel about what we see. Wake Up! Please!