And Dhoni goes to....

And Dhoni goes to.......Chennai!!(slam!)
And thus was ushered in a new era in cricket, or so it seems!! Well, love it, hate it, but the fat cash cows of BCCI have made sure that no one on this earth remotely interested in cricket will be able to ignore whats going on in IPL.
Every expert worth his salt has a view on the recent happenings, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the world of cricket has been shaken up from its very roots. Cricket, since its inception, has been a slow game compared to its peers like football and hockey, infinitely faster and more physically demanding. Perhaps in keeping pace with that, even ICC has generally been a rather slow, geriatric and reactive kind of a body, mostly manned by some old men wiht stubborn mindsets, and it takes, from time to time, a revolution of the sorts of Kerry Packer and now, the IPL to shake it out of its slumber, and redefine the rules of the game, so to say.
I'm by no means suggesting that IPL is the panacea that will change everything for the better, it comes with its own downfalls, like putting further strain on the already bloated international calendar, forcing(sometimes) players to choose between city(IPL) and country, however there is no missing the fact that there is already a buzz that has been created around the cricketing world, and everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what course the events take.
Indeed, images of an alien-looking SRK or glam doll Preity Zinta lapping up Gilchrist and Dhoni like they were blue-chip stocks in a bullish market (its difficult to miss the India connection here) has taken commoditisation of cricketers to a new level, hitherto unforeseen or unheard of, and I cant help but feel that there would be a heartburn or tw among retired greats of he game seeing the obscene amounts of money the players are being bought for.
I was reading an interesting article by Allan Border about how India has too much say in world cricket at the moment, and how we are acting like 'imperial' rulers (couldnt help but chuckle at this:), and there will be a lot written about and spoken about this entire episode, but one thig can be said for certain, cricket as we knew it, will never be the same again. For better or for worse, only time will tell!
So till then, pass the popcorn, and start the show!