personally i hope it flops big time.

Probably a sight less than have gone to the IPL. There is no non-financial reason why players should be penalised for playing in the ICL. It is only the greed of the BCCI, who were whinging on and on about the 2020 world cup because they hadn't played it and so were against it, then found it was popular too late and were desperate to cash in but were beaten to it.

As for these arguments that if it happened in England or Australia it would be fine, thats a very weak argument. Domestic competitions in other countries do not invent and sell off teams to rake in TV rights. Competitions are played with teams who contribute to player development, work on developing cricket in the local area and exist all year round. If the Indian states were playing in the 2020 then fine, but can you imagine English 2020 being played between Manchester Mavericks, Leeds Lions, Birmingham Boshers, London Lettuces, Norwich Knights, Newcastle Not Outers, Bristol Bullseyes and Swansea Streakers? Especially if the players disappear back to a proper side for the rest of the year.

Nice one captain! My thoughts exactly.

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Ern

Why do you want it to flop?

The answer lies within the threadstart.

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Ern

The IPL is the worst thing to happen to cricket since WSC. Nothing good will come out of this.

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

I see the Indian test team are warming up for IPL already as they were bowled out in 20 overs today.

Personally I think a whole lot of good came out of the WSC. Maybe nothing good will come out of the IPL, and I'm certainly not a fan of the tournament. But I don't think anything particularly bad will come out of it either. Test cricket dying? Why would it? Tests have survived two World Wars, several terrorist attacks, Bodyline, the Great Depression, and the aforementioned WSC- and it's not only survived, but in some cases actually improved. It can certainly endure through a domestic tournament for 44 days out of the year. Faltering techniques? Lest we forget, time was that a classical technique was rolling the ball on the ground underarm, and the batsman hitting it to the off with a curved stick. Maybe techniques will change. As they have always done. And the big one- players opting for the IPL when it's on, as opposed to their national duties. Now admittedly, it's not something I'm all that happy with, but the absolute worst-case scenario is that some players will be unavailable for a month. And that's assuming that none of the boards issue the No Objection certificates, and that they don't opt for a month-long window.

76 is not a good enough total for 20/20.
:-)

I can see why fans of county cricket (all 5 of them) would want to see IPL to fail. Also why many Indians seem to be prematurely convinced of it's success. A lot of it has to do with Jealousy/patriotism even though they wont admit it.

I would only follow IPL if i am convinced players are giving 100%. If Warne sledges Symonds and Lee bounces Gilly. If they treat is as a charity game there is no point.

In the end it's not going to be what we wish but whether there is a good enough market for it. If ICL is being seriously followed in Pakistan with it's low quality chances of IPL doing well are rather high initially. Once the novelty wears off it's anybody's guess.