Indian Premier League (IPL) was inaugurated in 2008 and was conceived in a way that eight Indian city teams will play each other in a home and away format in the lines of English Premier League (football). The first edition of IPL was held from April 18, 2007 to June 1, 2008, and was a huge success. The second edition of the IPL was scheduled to take place from April 10, 2009. Although IPL is a purely commercial venture, it was the first Indian sporting brand where cricketers from around the globe came to play cricket in India with Indian internationals and local Indian players.BCCI on March 22, 2009, decided to hold IPL outside of India. This was done because some of the states (UPA ruled states) said they would not be able to provide security to the IPL as India will be going through general elections at the same time and they did not want to take the risk of a Lahore like incident during the IPL.
There are a few things to ponder about the security issues that the UPA ruled states and the UPA government has brought forward by making a direct reference to the Lahore attack of the Sri Lankan national team:
Is the situation of India and Pakistan the same, election or no election? I do not think there is even an iota of semblance between the security conditions of the two countries. Pakistan is a failed country which is going through chaos; more than 50% of the country is not in the control of the federal government and is controlled by Taliban and/or feudal warlords. State agencies in Pakistan sponsor terrorism and in all likelihood the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team was backed by some rogue elements within a state agency. On the other hand, India is as safe as UK or USA (sporadic terror attacks happen in UK, India, or in any part of the world but not sponsored by the government).
If government cannot guarantee the security of a sporting event during the election, is the life of the ordinary Indians (Aam Admi) safe during the same period? I am starting to wonder about the safety of malls, multiplexes, rails, metro rails, airports and any other place where large number of people assemble during the April May time period as the Government of India will not have adequate security forces to protect any one but election booths.
Will the Indian government send advisory to all foreign governments to prevent their citizens from visiting India during the same period because India cannot provide adequate security in the Indian cities and towns and chances are there that some of them might be kidnapped and killed (like in Pakistan).
Can India host gala sport events (commonwealth games) in the future and what if nobody wants to come here because the government has already given the signal that India is not a safe country anymore.
By denying IPL 2, I think Government of India has created question marks about India's ability to provide security to Indians and a handful of foreign players. I think the decision of not granting security to IPL 2 has more to do with Lalit Modi's proximity to the opposition (NDA) rather than the inability to provide security during the election process. If states like West Bengal (Third front ruled) and NDA ruled states like Karnataka, Punjab can provide security why can't UPA ruled states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh do the same?
The decision of BCCI to shift IPL out of India due to security concerns will not harm the game of cricket and will not harm the commercial interests of BCCI and/or the franchises but definitely will tarnish the image of India. It will also give India's adversaries a chance to equate the unsafe situation in Pakistan with India citing Government of India's inability/reluctance to provide security to a major domestic sporting event.
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