India moves up the order

"India has been subservient for 100 years. People are used to dictating terms to us. We're just evening the playing field. And if it's our turn to have some glory, so much the better." -- Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi.

India is flexing its new economic muscle to shape the future of the stately old game of cricket, the second most popular sport in the world. It is evidence of the country's newfound confidence.

A new cricket league, the Indian Premier league, which is scheduled to start in April and last for 44 days, taps into the vast wealth and cricketing passion of the subcontinent. The format of the game, the amount of money involved, and the tournament's international nature, are extraordinary in sporting terms, let alone those of cricket. It is one of the most lucrative sporting events ever to be launched in Asia:

• The IPL will feature 59 matches aimed at prime-time television in a country with the largest global cricket audience.

• The IPL has already raised 1.8 billion dollars from the sale of the teams involved, title sponsorship and electronic media broadcast rights for 10 years.
• The teams will play a supercharged variant of cricket called Twenty20, a format in which games take a few hours to complete -- far shorter than traditional Test cricket, in which games can last up to five days.
• More than 70 international stars have been recruited for salaries that, on a pro-rata basis, compete with those of UK Premier League footballers.

A third way

The IPL will not revolutionise cricket in the same way World Series cricket, the brainchild of Australian television mogul Kerry Packer, did in the 1970s. World Series cricket modified one-day international games, playing under floodlights, using coloured clothing and white balls, elements that still survive today. The IPL is a third way to play the sport, rather than a game that will challenge or replace the Test match -- cricket's premier product -- and one-day games.

Yet the IPL shake-up will galvanise the game. "The free market, in sport as in life, may have sharp teeth and base motives, but it can still leave a benevolent legacy," writes Ed Smith in The Times. He says that World Series cricket gave cricket a much-needed shot in the arm -- despite a fractious period, the game emerged with a more marketable product. So, the best way forward for cricket may be to embrace IPL in the short term, while dedicating its full attention to outwitting it in the future.

Rebel challenge

If nothing else, India has shown the sporting world that leagues can duke it out in a free market. The officially sanctioned IPL was set up to counter the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League (ICL), which stages its second Twenty20 tournament this week until April 7. The ICL is bankrolled by the controllers of India's largest listed media firm, but is not sanctioned by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC). The ICL may have a short lifespan: it has not attracted players of the same calibre as those in the IPL. Many of its marquee players are in the twilight of their careers, or have been enticed out of retirement to play in the league.

New world order?

Beyond the coloured kits and huge sums of money involved, the IPL is enormously symbolic of a new world order. The development of cricket, which was first introduced to India by the English, has been closely tied up with the history of the country, mirroring many of the political and cultural developments around issues such as caste, religion and nationality. Many Indians will feel an enormous sense of pride that they are now the leaders on a world stage. The cricketing calendar will almost certainly be rejigged to accommodate the IPL and allow more international talent, including English players, to play in the lucrative new tournament. As The Guardian writes, India generates some 70% of world cricket revenues so it is surely right that the power within the game is located with the country that is its powerhouse.

Cricket traditionalists, not used to such brash commercialism and naked exploitation, will continue to be suspicious of the IPL. Yet the business community, more interested in opportunity than preserving tradition, will closely follow the fortunes of the IPL. If the inchoate league becomes an icon brand -- entirely possible in a country with roaring economic growth and a burgeoning and consumer-crazy middle-class -- cricket may be just the first winner.