IPL needs a system to ensure bad teams become better

In a thought provoking piece, our guest writer Avnish Anand proposes a system so that no team continues to remain bad in IPL.

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In the EPL and other football leagues in Europe, the bottom three teams are relegated at the end of the season. Relegation is bad for the clubs – they lose TV revenue, ticket sales drop and their reputation takes a beating. Clubs are paranoid about getting relegated and do everything possible to avoid it. The system of relegation ensures that a club cannot get away with being a bad team. A team cannot be bad on a regular basis because they won’t be in the league after their first bad season.

This is an example of punishing poor performing clubs.

In North American sports leagues, the clubs at the bottom of the pile are given preferential treatment when it comes to picking the best new players entering the league. All the new players enter the league through the draft and the bottom dwellers from the previous season are allowed to make their picks first. By adding the best new players, the doormats are given a chance to improve themselves and become more competitive.

This asymmetrical distribution of talent helps in closing the talent gap and is an example of the league helping the poor teams come up to speed.

This system also ensures that teams don’t remain bad for too long ( it works in most cases unless you are the Los Angeles Clippers or the Detroit Lions)

The IPL currently has no system. A team could continue to be bad and nothing will happen. By being in the league it will get its share of the TV and ad money and cricket crazy fans will continue to flock the stadiums.

Therefore, the IPL needs to have a system in place soon. So lets try and identify the best model for the league.

The IPL is similar to the American leagues in the sense that we don’t have a second tier and cannot relegate the Kings Eleven Punjab for finishing last – simply because there is no place to send them. The lack of a second tier also means there can be no replacements for Punjab. Usually the top teams in the second tier are promoted to the first tier.

And unlike the American system, the IPL cannot have a draft based model to induct new players. So while the IPL should ape the Americans by helping their weaker teams improve, they don’t have the option to copy the American solution.

There is draft-like system to induct the under 19 players but those guys won’t even be making the playing elevens; forget making an impact on their team’s fortunes.

The IPL, however, could tinker with the Salary cap rules, allowing a little extra wriggle room for the bottom two franchisees. They could add an additional amount ( say 10% for the last placed team and 5 % for the second last team) to the cap value, thereby giving these teams a chance to make some extra reinforcements. Armed with the extra cash, these teams could be a bigger force in the auctions and the free agent market and hopefully lift themselves up from their position of misery.

These teams will still have to do all the things that go towards creating a winning side starting with signing the right players. The league will just give them a helping hand.

Also, the extra cap should only be applicable for one season. If the team finishes sixth or above, then the extra cap goes away for next season. Teams will have to manage the cap by signing players for one season or lowering their salary commitment by trading away some players.

The gulf between the sides hasn’t been very huge in the first three seasons. But some teams are showing early signs of having bottom dwelling tendencies. It’s natural that over the course of a few seasons, consistently good and bad teams will emerge. And that as the history of North American leagues shows us, is bound to happen irrespective of the salary cap. It will happen because there will be well run teams and poorly managed ones. The league has no disincentive for the bad teams and cannot get rid of them. Therefore, it will need to have some kind of a “help the poor teams” system in place. If not for the owners, then atleast for the fans’ sake.

Avnish Anand works for an internet start-up Caratlane - www.caratlane - and also writes an interesting sports blog - www.acommonfan.com.