Cricket For Peace

Will India’s showcase cricket tournament go ahead?

Even before the hideous attack on cricket in Pakistan, the Indian government was voicing concerns about whether the IPL should go ahead on time.   The premier league is going to clash with the Indian general elections.  Anyone who’s been to India during election time knows its a crazy hectic and sometimes a little scary place to be.   I was once in Bihar during an election and the whole place was shut down to prevent chaos and violence.  On a side note – they also don’t serve alcohol in India the day before and during polls, although wierdly once the polling stations shut booze becomes available again.

As soon as the general election dates where announced, some cities became uncomfortable with hosting matches and elections on the same day.  Matches for the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers are being rescheduled so they don’t clash with polls in Calcutta and Bangalore.   But the government’s unhappiness at the clashes weren’t just about security – there was a fear that coverage of the series would clash with the election campaign.

The BJP said,

‘Election is the biggest festival of the masses in democracy.  If there is any other event that threatens to spoil this party, at least an attempt should be made to prevent it’.

And  a Congress party representative noted,

‘I just appeal to the people to understand that they can watch the same match next June but they will only get to elect the next government only after five year (sic).’

The fear is that the IPL will overshadow the election.

Since the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and match officials, the concern has grown greater.  Trouble at the IPL would seriously dent India’s standing in the world and negatively impact on India’s reputation as the premier cricketing nation.

Lalit Modi, head of the IPL and the sponsors are pressuring the government to give the go-ahead despite security fears.

‘Advertisers say that there will be an impact if the event is deferred even by a couple of weeks as “there is too much at stake, with close to Rs 1200 crore riding on the event.” Major sponsors of IPL this year include Hero Honda, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Airtel, Vodafone and Kingfisher.

“If IPL is rescheduled, at stake are advertising campaigns, launches and activities – all will be affected. It will upset a lot of facets of advertising connect, leading to chaos. There is nothing that matches it (IPL) in scale and value,” says Tarun Nigam, executive director of Starcom India-north.’ – http://ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/News/News/Too-much-at-stake-say-advertisers/articleshow/4225451.cms

This poses a huge dilemma for the Indian government and may reflect who holds the real power in India now – big business or government.

If anything happened at the matches, or in the cities holding the matches, whether election-related violence or (more unlikely but still a possibility) some kind of terrorist attack, the government will pay the price.

‘Over the past 48 hours, the Indian government has reached the conclusion that to cancel the IPL, even to avoid clashes with polling in the national elections, would represent an admission of impotence against terrorist attacks that cannot be contemplated. There are many things that can be cancelled without too much damage to national pride, but cricket is not among them. But until the IPL reveals its security plans in detail, and the Indian government clearly states that it is committed to them, then Modi’s assurances that the tournament goes on have an element of promotional bluster.‘ – http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/mar/07/cricket-indianpremierleague

There are of course other factors at play in the Congress government’s calculations.

‘One has also valid reasons to suspect that electoral considerations– the anxiety of the Congress (I) not to step on the toes of Shri Sharad Pawar, who apart from being an influential member of the union cabinet, wears a second hat as the czar of the commercialised cricket world– are also playing a role in preventing a totally professional judgement on the issue.’ – http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090309&fname=ipl&sid=1&pn=1

Lalit Modi has recently said that security for the matches and players will be run by a central committee for the IPL and that the budget will be ‘10 times’ that of last year (no figures given though, although its rumoured to be in the region of £5m). 

However the Indian government has already said that paramilitaries will not be available for players protection, as they’ll be busy making sure the election goes smoothly.

Many players will wait for detailed security plans to be revealed before committing to the tournament.  KP and the New Zealand cricket board have already voiced concerns.

And the latest news is that the IPL is refusing to involve the players association (FICA) in negotiations.  Many players set great store by this organisation that represents their interests, and apparently FICA was closely involved in encouraging England players to go back to India after the Mumbai attacks (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/mar/10/cricket-indian-premier-league ).  The IPL management are opposed to such player representative (another sign of big businesses lack of care for its workers/unions?).

The IPL has said that they security arrangements will be similar to those put in place for England players after the Mumbai attacks.  Well they worked in that no trouble was seen but in Chennai they were patchy at best (sometimes you got frisked, sometimes you didn’t) and oppressive in Mohali – which arguably reduced crowd numbers to disappointing levels.

The current plan is for matches to be held (if the event goes ahead) in more cities, including Ahmedabad (no trouble there, ever!), Cuttack, Nagpur, Dharmshala as well as the original eight franchise cities.  This is great news for fans no doubt but whether it will allow things to go smoothly is questionable.

So as Modi tries to assure everyone that all is well, there’s a lot of arm twisting going on.  For the players and the government there’s some deep thinking to be done – is it safe? will it effect the elections? and is the money really worth it?

Who wins will surely say a lot about the power of big business and politics in modern India.

UPDATE:  Modi has just announced that the IPL will not be staged in India.  So I guess the politicians won.  Although whether it’s really a win is another matter – I guess we’ll just have to watch this space.

The current plan is most likely to involve the IPL being staged in England.  Seems like madness to me – more cricket in April???  Still I for one would love it to be held here as that’ll mean I can go and watch some games.  Bonus!