Its bad to say something about a new business venture, but Mr.Chandra must have obviously noticed a major problem in Indian Cricket. Domestic Cricketing circuit in India is never well received by the public. Contarary to Mr. Chandra's belief, its not the lack of support or lack of money which is creating problems in Indian Cricket. In fact domestic Cricket is as heavily funded or even more funded than the International Cricket. Just look at the sheer volume of matches spanning accross in more than 6 categories all over India and even more at the Zonal levels. All thos players; even the U-13 Cricketers are paid with hefty fees and are provided with five star facilities both on and off the Ground. An U-13 guy playing for his home association's team can earn anything between Rs. 1-2 lakhs in a year; just imagine the how much the players are geting while playing at the Ranji Trophy level. So, the problem is not money or lack or support or even infrastructure, rather its only about the iconisim - which has become a strange phenomenon in Indian Cricket. The chosen few who make it to the international arena are made as icons of the Country not for what they do in the matches thy play rather, for the things they do outside the ground or rarely some times for on-off performances. Almost all of us know how many test centuries has Sachin Tendulkar has scored and he holds the world record for the most number of Test Centuries in the world. But how many of us can honestly say that we know the name of the player who has scored the highest number of First Class Centuries in the domestic Circuit. The essence is that we all follow some icons and not their game. So, if Zee is venturing out in domestic Cricket, they might be taking a huge risk. One might advice them that they should try something in the international arena, where there are people who follow their icons.But again since they have their owen channel, its quite possible that they hit success as well. And for the people who say that we are promoting Cricket at the expense of other sports; one might point out that you have to buy a ticket costing anything between Rs. 50 to 500 to watcth a match in the National football or Hockey league; where as you can watch it for free in case of a Renji Tropy, Deodher Trophy or the Irani trophy and one can still find their icons playing in them....
