Seismic shift hits Indian cricket

Rival Twenty20 tournaments could presage a power struggle, says HARRY UNDERWOOD

The Indian economy is thriving and the national obsession of cricket - followed by hundreds of millions of fans - is following suit. But the commercialisation of the sport is threatening to split the domestic game, creating a seismic shift in cricket similar to the impact of Kerry Packer's World Series in the 1970s.

The new Indian Cricket League, featuring Brian Lara (right), Inzamam-ul-Haq, plus Chris Read and Vikram Solanki from England and plenty of local journeymen, was launched on November 30 - with firecrackers, cheerleaders, and a Bollywood heartthrob entertaining the crowd - in an effort to tap into the commercial potential of the subcontinent’s lucrative pay-TV market.

The league came about after media baron Subhash Chandra found his higher bids for television rights overlooked by the BCCI, Indian cricket's governing body. Chandra, a

Brian Lara joins
a few stars and
a group of local journeymen in the Indian Cricket League

former rice-trader, has poured millions from his Zee Sports company into the ICL's inaugural six-team Twenty20 competition.

Though tickets at 100 rupees (£1) are affordable, domestic players can now earn a respectable professional wage, and the English recruits are said to be pocketing £75,000 for six weeks' work. Teams called the Chennai Superstars and Hyderabad Heroes are tended to by physiotherapists and psychologists, championed by cuddly mascots, serenaded by the stars of reality TV and clad in garish suits.

As the rude shock of Packer's tournament modernised the international game in the 1970s, so competition from the renegade ICL is forcing the BCCI to get their act together. They've lured stars such as Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting into their Twenty20 competition, the Indian Premier League.

With no shortage of animosity between the two camps, and seemingly no end of cash either, Indian cricket is set for a fierce but flamboyant power struggle.