From Zee to A

Just as i had come to the conclusion that nothing on Indian cricket could arouse my curiosity anymore,considering the things that had happened in the past few weeks,I found myself wrong,not just once but twice and on both the occasions I had to cast my gaze downwards to make sure that my feet were firmly set on the floor.It was the announcement of Indian Cricket League or ICL made by Zee TV supremo Subhash Chandra that had caught me unawares for the first time and before i could delve into the nuances of a professional domestic cricket league,the BCCI drew up a slew of initiatives to revitalize a staggering Indian cricket team thereby startling even the best of the optimists among the fans of the game.All this within a span of three days.
The idea of a domestic professional cricket league was something that i had been toying with for quite a long time as i found it rather odd that there was a huge amount of cricketing potential left unearthed in India where Hinduism manages only a close second in the run up for the most followed religion with cricket notching up the top spot.In a multi-sport country,say,the United States,a professional league is expected to be challenged by similar leagues of other games.No such problems here since India is a single-sport country and I have always wondered why the domestic cricket scenario was in such a downtrodden state.The enthusiasm of the public towards the national team can be spread to the poor cousins of theirs who play in the domestic circuit only by bringing in sponsors and live television coverage to the games.The BCCI's failure to cash in on this has paved the way for others to pioneer into it.
Among the many recommendations that the BCCI has come up with to improve the state of the game in India,two of them stand out from the rest.One is the expulsion of the contracts based on seniority and the other is the formation of a pool of thirty players who are eligible to play international cricket so that they could be rotated accordingly.The former would inevitably be the first step towards the end of the senior-junior system in the team and I hope that in future a player wont be forced to address his captain as 'Dada' or 'Kaka' to get himself into the playing XI.The latter suggestion would come into prominence if the BCCI is to join hands with ICL at some point.The BCCI could fill the pool of players with the best players in the ICL,especially since it is advisable to have a separate team for 20/20,which is exactly the format of ICL.