Is the world cricket order about to crack?

The stiff upper lip is cracking. And so is the world cricket order.

After the mega success of the IPL, a fresh round of seesaw battle has started in world cricket. On the one side of the fulcrum is the historically richest cricket board and on other side is the financially richest board. Their being at loggerheads can potentially divide the world cricket order as never before. From staging of the Champions League to itineraries and from the issues pertaining to the rebel league to sharing of resources, they are on the warpath. This simmering discontent in world cricket, if not controlled with alacrity, can develop into a full-fledged war. Why is that so? One need not to be a rocket scientist to understand that.

Unleashing anything to the market forces is an easy thing, controlling it is a Herculean task. 'Modiphobia' has gripped the cricketing world, thanks to the hugely successful IPL show. From the auctioning of cricket players in Mumbai, to the sponsors coming up with astronomical sum, the entire world watched 44 days of slam-bang cricket with bated breath.

The epicenter of this cricketing earthquake was India, but its reverberations were felt more in England than anywhere else. Top quality cricketers from India, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa pocketed money in lakhs for a few days of cricket. When money flows freely, loyalty becomes questionable. English cricketers, except Dimitri Mascarenhas, were deprived of money in the Great Indian cricket bazaar. Naturally, they became the most vulnerable lot in the second edition. Sources in the IPL claim that star English batsman Kevin Pietersen was offered Rs. six crore by one of the franchisees for the second edition. If thtat was not enough, came the mega idea of the Champions League. All these shook the very edifice of English cricket.

Not very long ago, English, Australian and Kiwi players used to skip the Indian tour on the simplest of pretexts. Now, India has not only become a hot destination from the cricketing and advertisement view point, but also, many of their famed former cricketers made a bee-line to work as coach, consultant and support staff. The gaffe made in the Sydney Test proved that now the erstwhile monarchs of world cricket could no more take India for granted. The last nail in the coffin came after the culmination of the first edition of the Indian Cricket League. Till date, playing in English cricket county was supposed to be a privilege. Now, players from England were willing to terminate their contract with the English county and play in the lucrative IPL, some even at the cost of their international jersey. The stiff upper lip cracked like never before.

England's cricket superiority got challenged and they started devising ways and means to rival this threat. Talks of overhauling of the England county structure started, IPL borrowed idea of franchise system league was mooted and shunned. In order to counter balance the threat, a strong message was sent. The puritan mentality of England cricket was given commercial overdose. A high-profile series was announced- courtesy Texan billionaire Stanford. ECB first dilly-dallied the IPL proposal for the champions league and then strictly said no-no to outcaste the players attached to BCCI rebel league i.e. ICL. This is not to say that every action of ECB is wrong, but the fact is that it's more of a reaction to an impending crisis.

If resistance upfront was not even, back-room diplomacy has also started. The ECB is very shrewdly trying to drive a wedge in the Asian bloc of the ICC. It initiated the proposal for making the result of the critical Oval Test null and void. Not only this, in the Dubai meet it went out of its way to woo Pakistan, promising them to do their best so that the Champions Trophy will be held in Pakistan despite talks of security threats.

To even this out, even the BCCI is going the whole hog. It has asked its players VVS Laxman and Piyush Chawla not to accept county contracts. The reason? They were supposed to play with some of the players attached to the rebel league. When the ECB raised a hue and cry about the proposed itinerary of the England tour to India, they shot back in no uncertain terms.

"Where matches in India are to be played is our internal matter. In the past we have got the worst of facilities when we went to England," BCCI's mandarins shouted back. The relations between the two Boards have hit rock bottom now. While Lalit Modi and company are going ahead with the Champions League, the ECB has decided to go on its own. As of now, the world is heading towards two leagues competing with each other. Unfortunately, in this tug of war, cricket will be the biggest loser. The entire cricketing structure is in the ICU and the time has come to take some hard and definitive measures. Before this, the administrators running cricket need to introspect and introspect hard.

What are the issues dividing the two blocs? On the one hand the ICC is talking about globalization of cricket and on the other hand existing cricket centres like West Indies, Zimbabwe and now Pakistan are withering away. What is the ICC doing to arrest their decline? Why is the ICC not coming up with a standard security related policy, when it is causing problems time and again? If major cricketing countries decline to play in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, what should be the economic model for its survival? How much cricket is too much cricket? And most importantly, how balanced is the existing country structure and newly emerging league structure? Unfortunately, procrastination instead of finding a solution is the approach. The stiff upper lip is cracking. Is it now the turn of world cricket to crack?