AFTER having burned the borders, indulged in fierce rivalry that knew no nationality, the cricketers will have to quickly return to their natural fold. The sweeping change comes after a hectic month and a half of a strange potpourri known as the Indian Premier League and the new stage is the World Cup of Twentyt20, where once again national pride will be at stake.
The question to ask is whether the players who have been foes to their own kind will be friends and colleagues again so soon. Will less than two weeks suffice to switch off from the role of a highly paid professional to being highly patriotic. This is first such test and we will have to wait and watch for any aberrations that may creep into doing national duty.
The most to suffer from the hangover will be the Indian players, as they rivaled each other more than the others. There was nowhere near a repetition of last year's ugly incident of Harbhajan Singh slapping pace bowler Sreesanth after Mumbai Indians lost to King's XI Punjab. But there were several needling moments amongst the players. Fortunately, they did not lead to any showdown and the Punjab team even won the Play Fair trophy this year for being the best-behaved team.
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gone on record saying that he will have to quickly get his flock together as "there is not much time to feel as one cohesive unit again after battling against each other." So much for the players, the situation has the organizers of the Twenty20 World Cup in England somewhat worried. After the runaway success of the IPL in South Africa, they are apprehensive whether their event will have as much success.
The England-West Indies Test series, which had started in the midst of the IPL was badly hit for following. There was not only poor ground attendance, but also almost negligible television viewer ship, as the majority of cricket-lovers were tuned to the IPL matches, which were televised, live at the same time.
Now, the Twenty20 World Cup organizers are banking heavily on the support of the Asian community for the matches. They surely make up the bulk of the stadium spectators. Whether the event will be such a big hit as the IPL on television is to be seen. The main source of revenue comes from commercials on television and on the sale of TV rights. For the followers of the game, an encouraging aspect will be the return of the Pakistani players on the world stage after a brief isolation. They will be just waiting to grab the opportunity to show their worth. Pakistan lost the last Twenty20 World Cup final to India narrowly in the last over. They would be eager to make amends. And that is what is going to make this event different from the IPL — and that is so much national pride to play for.
