IPL and the future of Indian sports

The much talked about IPL.. have been reading a lot lately about this. Read an article by Rajdeep Sardesai today in HT - Reverse Sweepstakes - you can read it here.
Thought for a change it was quiet a balanced article by him and the points he put across are quiet valid ones. adding a few of my points below along with the ones i picked up from him -

• With the privatisation of Cricket does representation of the country take a backseat? Are we going the American way where sport has become completely privatised rather than a country representative effort because of the inane number of contracts the players are under and the money that is invested in them. No injuries to the grand investment can be made and therefore sports holds a completely different meaning in the United States.
• IPL is like famous european sport Soccer which is played mostly under clubs. a country representation maybe happens only in a FIFA world cup. My thought isnt that the most exciting of all the soccer tournaments? with all the countries doing a header against each other? Well i think it is..
• My first thought when i heard of IPL was where is the time for these players to play in something like this. This could mean only a compromise by the players on the nation representation front as they will be bound by contracts.and ofcourse the kind of monies that the sale of these players have attracted for them, none of these inter nation tournaments would ever get them.
• With IPL now, parents think even sport can be a career but then thats one sport namely CRICKET. what about the rest? The rest including Hockey our national game seems to be living in complete poverty and oblivion.Much has been said and debated about it all and Chakh De India was made based on Hockey but it seems to divert the spirits towards cricket more than hockey. I still wonder what is it that makes this game so popular? well i seem to have not found the answer till date.
• Like Rajdeep says, its good that cricketers unlike his fathers time are being paid a good amount wherein they can ensure a good living but isnt it now the other extreme? well i think yes it is. there has to be some sort of balance. with the insane number of endorsements they anyways earn zillions (maybe they should trickle down some to us poor advertising employees..hehe..would be good charity they would be a part of ). anyways, What about other sports? they are still as i said living in the same age old world of being ignored and players being absolutely poor: complete blindness towards them and exploitation. Definitely isnt a career option but just sheer passion that keeps sportmen going. thats sad. It's a conflict between two extremes in the same world of sports in the country right now.
• After all the hoopla, where has been the team spirit or the deadly attitude of the Indian players? maybe instead of fighting racial abuse cases in australia they should concentrate more on what they have gone there to do and that is simply PLAYYYYYYYY!! Indian players have never had it in them for a while now atleast cricketers in the last few years. Its shameful. I guess IPL intrinsically suits the moronic cricketers who are anyways more interested in endorsements than their real job which is playing. This to me is practicing Corruption in its own right by the players no lesser than the kind of corruption practiced by our dear politicians.

Lets wait and watch, Maybe i will be proved wrong, i'd be happy if i am.

Lastly found something interestingly intriguing while browsing.. here goes.. couldn't have agreed less with america for a change :D :-) :-) He He!!

Most Americans view cricket as quintessentially, unfathomably English -- less a sport than an eccentric kind of picnic, and as baffling as wallpaper on the ceiling and "spotted dick" on dessert menus.