If football, rugby and darts can have Premier Leagues, why not cricket?

The controversial yet eagerly anticipated Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) has finally begun, but one cannot watch without fear for the future of the game that we know and love.

To the younger spectator, the tournament signifies a vast improvement in the sport. No more mundane, five-day affairs littered with the concentrated defensive shot, but a chance for the sport to show its real colour, flair and excitement. To the traditionalist, it is a sign of things to come, a warning that the principles of the English game are no longer welcome in today’s climate.

But it is not only cricket that has found itself in an Americanised state - far from it. In fact, cricket has only done what ever other sport has threatened to do since the emergence of the English football Premier League in 1992.

The worldwide popularity of the Premiership has set a dangerous precedent for other sports. Soon enough football became no more a sport than an entertainment industry, where players swapped clubs for money and teams would go in search all over the globe for further adoration and, more importantly, profitable markets.