Ah, the answer to the question I put up in the last post! Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will indeed be part of the new slam-bang quickie format, named the IPL, or the Indian Premier League. How could they ever not be?

See, as far as logic goes from the BCCI's point of view, this makes tremendous sense. They have Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble, Ganguly, McGrath and Shane Warne; who the hell is not interested in watching them kill each other off in a 20-over shootout? It won't be pretty but it definitely promises to give an audience the thrill a quickie always does. Frankly, just like the ICL's showcasing of their talents a month ago or so was deemed "a taiiin taiiin phussssss affair" by Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BCCI's unveiling of their league is just opposite. You can't get bigger than this, though, however, whether or not it can get better than this is a different matter.

So now Kumble, who couldn't find a place in the 50-over format that was considered more suitable for younger and quicker players, will be able to make a mark in the 20-over-a-side format. Only the BCCI could have come up with this! Money-generating-wise, the idea is great; cricket-logic-wise, it is as confusing as the BCCI usually is. So now Kumble must seriously be wondering if he is back in contention for the 50-over format as well. He resigned from ODIs only coz he wasn't getting picked, right?

The most different thing about the IPL is going to be the corporate angle. Each team is to be managed by a corporate sponsor who can trade players and select the players they want and leave out those they don't, "supposedly" without any interference by the BCCI. So now, from one set of national selectors, we have eight sets of selectors (if the number of teams stays eight).

The IPL has been planned on the lines of the soccer leagues across Europe, but can it be run as professionally as those are? (Ok, soccer fans might debate the point of "being professionally run"). In those soccer leagues, it is the men who score the goals, the men who set up the goals through passes, the men who defend like lions; here, I am sure, the most prominent men will be the ones who can sell the most biscuits or the most cola. If Sehwag is coming in ads for Coca Cola, and Coke becomes the sponsor for one of the teams having him in the squad, are they really going to drop him and take someone else?

It is not about Sehwag playing or not playing! It is about the league being about money, not cricket. The ICL was accused of being a money-making venture, which it certainly is. How is the IPL different?

I am sure there will be a lot of fireworks in the days to come, but one thing is for certain; when the BCCI is involved, you can be sure it is going to be a financial success. How much it will actually improve the standard of cricket is a different and as yet un-addressed question.