IPL does not imply India's Pakistani Liability

From the face of it, it does look like there were hardly any cricketing reasons for the IPL franchisees to dump Pakistani cricketers. What though has come to the forefront is a kiddish response from the Pakistani government attributing the non-selection of Pakistani players to a political agenda. I can't understand what will the government have to do with the IPL in the first place.

Remember last year's IPL? It was the IPL and its franchisees' decision to host the matches outside of India, despite some vague assurances by P.Chidambaram. BCCI is a body which does not come under the Indian government scrutiny. In fact, it is only beginning this year that the government is going to levy Rs. 120 crore in tax from the BCCI. When there are so many pointers that the BCCI, forget the IPL has nothing to do with the government, one can only scoff at the Pakistani government allegations.

Looks like the media in Pakistan is whipping up mass hysteria for the supposed snub to their players during the auctioneering. Cable operators across Pakistan have protested the treatment to its players and will black out the IPL games in Pakistan it is said. The fact of the matter is, Pakistan is frustrated and doesn't want to look into its own messy problems of terrorism and bombings and is trying to divert attention to a trivial issue.

Pakistan is already isolated as a cricket hosting nation, and it will be unwise for the Pakistani government to put the cricketers in further jeopardy. It would be wise for Pakistan to realize and understand that it is India which is swaying the cricketing finances in the globe. Any amount of persuasion will not help the future of the cricketers from Pakistan, especially when there is still an air of tension between India and Pakistan.

As far as the IPL franchisees go, they would not have wanted to draw unnecessary attention from fundamentalist organizations like the Shiv Sena, who are waiting to spoil the party. Why would an IPL franchisee want to spend $200,000 on a Pakistani player who may not even be given a VISA in the worst possible scenario? That would be a real shame and waste of money for the franchisee. Clearly, there is only a business angle to it. And the only reason for the Pakistani players to have featured in the initial list was to give those players a fair chance. The decision was finally left to the franchisees, who went purely by their business objectives