Make no mistake, IPL is no ordinary TLA (Three Letter Acronym). It comes with all the money, power and majesty that any corporate bullshit bingo player could ever dream off. As I hinted recently, IPL is coming, it is here to stay and a storm may be brewing. Perhaps it won’t be of WSC proportions but a few feathers may be about to be ruffled. I think that Cricket Australia should get ready to make way – for crying out loud, CA is only a puny two letter acronym. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI – they sure knew what they were doing when they went with a whole FOUR letters) is starting to flex its significant muscle and if this summer in Australia is any indication, I reckon CA will roll over.

Here is the situation: IPL runs over March and April. There is to be a big auction on 20 Feb where all of the contracted players will be bought by the various IPL franchises. How exciting. That is with the exception of so called iconic Indian players. These players are not for sale (but don’t worry, they will be handsomely paid) – Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid must play for their home cities (full details of the action http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/story/335706.html). Players have until the day of the auction to sign their contracts.

This is where the problems lies for Australian players and CA. Many of us will have noticed that months ago most of the Australian team provisionally signed with IPL. Not many paid attention and CA said nothing. What was IPL and it was ages away and who cares about T20 cricket anyway? Now, with the first IPL season rapidly approaching and conflicting with the tour of Pakistan, there is a conflict. CA is trotting out the line that they have concerns that there could be conflict of interest between IPL and CA sponsors – now that one really does belong in the corporate bullshit boardroom. It is about control and money for CA. A tour is money for CA and control is, well, control. It’s what cricket boards have always strived for.

CA has right of veto over players signing contracts that are in conflict with CA contracts. BCCI has said that they will respect that, and official tours that clash with IPL. CA has also said that they support IPL and want it to succeed. Of course, they do – if their boys can be paid about the same amount as the annual CA contract for six week work, all’s the better. It takes some of the pressure off CA to show the money. However, BCCI, through Lalit Modi are turning up the heat. They are pushing the 20 February deadline and have indicated Australian players can take part in the tournament without “no objection certificates” from Cricket Australia. Them’s fighting words. (http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/current/story/336347.html)

Of course, there is an easy “out” here. The Pakistan tour has been in danger of being cancelled for some time, due to valid security concerns. It will be very easy to get a letter from ABC Security Consultants saying that it is not safe to tour. That is sad for Pakistan and it is a real worry that players might be tempted to use excuses for not touring, in order to make more money. However, it’s all well and good to be principled and pure (whatever that means in this context) but let’s face the facts – IPL will not be beaten and nobody wins a war. The ACB (CA when they were still a TLA) didn’t achieve anything in the WSC cricket war except to play a part in making wounds that took a decade to heal.

I say let Ricky and the boys join Simon Taufel and all the greats and ex-greats in India for a six week slogathon. The annual event will be good for the coffers, good for moral, good for the players bank balances (why are moral and bank balances so inextricably linked?) and we won’t have to worry about not playing enough T20.