Going, going, gone......

Cricketers from the world over went on sale this past week in Mumbai as the much publicized IPL auctions took place at a 5 star hotel, where beer barons, film stars and industrialists happily coughed up millions to get leading international players into their franchisees.The Indian captain, M.S.Dhoni was bought by the Chennai ''Super Kings'' (how ridiculous a name is that for a team?) for a mind-boggling 1.5 million USD, nearly 4 times his reserve price! Well,MSD sure got a lot of USDs !Poor joke, point noted. However he wasn't the only one who found his bank account get doughed up, Aussie Andrew Symonds, inspite of his monkey business, and those pathetic dreadlocks, was signed up by the Hyderabad team for 1.35 million USDs ; becoming the highest paid foreign player.

Now, what are we getting into here? Is the IPL, as its inventors claim, a godsend for the country's pathetically hopeless domestic scene? Or will cricket's newest baby end up ringing the death knell for good old Test cricket? We have players around the world being wooed with 6 figure sums by the richest cricket board in the world, all because they couldn't bear to watch someone out of the system set up a league which rivals their numerous and frankly, quite mediocre domestic competitions. The palyers themselves, are of course, only too happy to participate in this noble cause of uplifting India's domestic scene from it's present misery. Who wouldn't, really, given that while playing T20 matches for a couple of months a year, you could end up making twice or thrice of what you would, while playing for your country, slogging it out against the world's best? Its more of an attraction for the ones reaching the end of their careers, rather than the newbies, who are still struggling to keep their noses above international cricket's deep waters. The recent spate of high profile retirements, noticeably, those of Shaun Pollock, Stephen Flemming, and a few others, is no coincidence, I say.

And now along comes Andrew Symonds, who has been crying himself hoarse over (well, apart from monkey business, of course,) Australia's upcoming, or cancelled, or postponed, or shortened or oh well...let's just say scheduled tour of Pakistan and how he wouldn't want to be a part of it because of the security situation in that country. And now, having been bought by Hyderabad as their star recruit, he recently said that he probably wouldn't be going there afterall. And to think that Symonds claimed he was racially abused in India last October during a bitter 7 match series! I guess money talks more than honour does.
However the larger issue here is that, most shockingly so, current players are refusing to turn up for that country, now that they have been faced with astronomial sums they wouldn't have got their hands on, while on national duty. Clearly, the ICC must do something to nip this trend in the bud...or international cricket will go to the dogs.

And with all the news of the players raking in the moolah, what would the young 'un playing in the street against his mates think? Surely, that Test cricket, techique, good old forward defence be damned, i'll just dance down the track, bring out the slog sweep and send the ball into orbit. Afterall, going by the current scheme of things, T20 is the way forward. You wouldnt want to stop your kid from playing cricket these days, he could be the next ''Super King''!!!