How to kill the Golden hen - the BCCI way

Writing his piece has been on my mind for a long time. I decided to finally pen it after I read this news item

“India to face South Africa in T20”

This is a one-off T20 match to be played on 30th March which is squeezed right in between the Asia cup and the IPL. Why should this match be played? To pay a tribute to a great player, Kallis. Is this a valid enough reason? I think, the real reason is GREED. I am sure you would have read the story of the man who killed the hen to get all the golden eggs in one day. Isn’t BCCI doing the same? Systematically killing the hen that lays golden eggs. Would Cricket go the way Indian hockey went. One because of greed and one because of inept administration.

Sample the stats:

Matches by Country in 2011
	Tests	ODI	T20	Intl cricket days
India	12	34	4	98
Sri Lanka	11	28	4	87
Pakistan	10	32	5	87
West Indies	10	28	5	83
Australia	9	25	6	76
England	8	30	7	77
Bangladesh	5	20	2	47
New Zealand	5	17	2	44
South Africa	5	15	3	43
Zimbabwe	3	17	4	36

So, India played 10-20 days of extra international cricket compared to other countries during the last year. This is without counting IPL and CL which were also played in India with capacity crowd. So, what is the outcome of all of this? Falling crowds at the venues in India for even ODIs and that too against England. A series which was billed as the “revenge series”! Hello, am I dreaming or what? We got more crowd in our stadia than Pak-England test series in Dubai. Srinivasan was quick to correct me. I stand corrected, SIR!

What else is the outcome? We have no time to play side games when we go on tough tours to countries like England and Australia. So, our players don’t get acclimatised and get humped 4-0 two times in a row. The viewership drops. So, is the BCCI going to make more money?

Enough has been said about the overloaded schedule, so let it be! Besides all this is the neglect for building the pipeline for future. Rohit was not played in test matches despite being down 3-0. Manoj Tiwari not being played in the tri-series. We are just basking in the glory of one superb innings from Virat (who incidentally is taking on from his mentor Mr Mallaya on the arrogance bit). Take a little quiz:

Q: Why is Sachin playing in Asia cup?

1. to complete 100th 100!

2. prepare for IPL!

3. Bangladesh has good family vacation spots!

This quiz tells us the state of affairs at the BCCI. And the chairman of selection committee flairs up when asked about Sehwag’s absence from the tourney.

But Guys IPL V is back. And things will be in shape. Didn’t I say that in my blog last year “looking forward to IPL 5”. The BCCI arrogance will make sure that IPL 5 will fail and that too miserably. With economy slowing down there are already signs of sponsor withdrawal. IPL 4 doing badly was accurately predicted by me last year!

Am I not a good businessman? Am I missing the larger picture somewhere? The satraps at BCCI can’t be such idiots not to be able to analyse what I am doing. Just less than a year back we won the World cup and the cricket team was the toast of the nation.

That exactly is my point. We can’t be moving from peaks to troughs so quickly. I guess it is about the short term vs the long term. I am a long term player! So I am happy with one golden egg a day and will not kill the hen for more.