Far from marking the end of nationalism, the IPL is the ultimate triumph of that principle: a global tournament in which the same nation always wins.

The IPL, involving the socialist principle of a salary cap and the protectionist mechanism of quotas, is not perhaps the best example of a market left flourishingly to its own devices and dynamics.

Since Modi’s Mumbai sign-off, much commentary has been focused on the brand-dilution potential inherent in its scandals. MS Dhoni doesn’t think we should worry: ‘IPL as a brand can survive on its own.’ Shilpa Shetty,...

[I]f Modi is toast, it will in one sense be a tremendous pity. In his way, he represents a third generation in cricket’s governance. For a hundred years and more, cricket was run by administrators,...

One keeps looking out for innovation in IPL, but of late it hasn’t been all that obvious. Lionel Richie as an opening act? Johnny Mathis must have been busy. Matthew Hayden’s Mongoose? Looks a bit...

[F]or all its reputation for conservatism, cricket in its history has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for innovation. What game has survived subjection to such extraordinary manipulations, having been prolonged to 10 days (in Durban 70...

George Orwell famously described international sport as ‘war minus the shooting’. But for all Orwell’s greatness as a thinker, this was one of his least felicitous lines, analogous to ‘murder minus the death’ or ‘life...

Sambit Bal may be right that this is a scandal the IPL needed. It certainly brings fans face-to-face with the tangled reality of their amusement, based as it is on a self-seeking, self-perpetuating commercial oligarchy...