Bayern Munich Football club scores in cricket crazy India

Bayern Munich, the reigning German soccer champion and four-time European Cup winner, faced more than an Indian club when it played in Kolkata today. It was trying to overcome a cricket culture and England's Premier League.

Bayern won the game 3-0 with Jan Schlaudraff scoring twice and Zé Roberto grabbing the other. A defensive blunder allowed Schlaudraff to score the opener after 18 minutes, before Zé Roberto curled in a free kick on 37 minutes after Mohun keeper Sangram Mukherjee had handled outside the area.
Bayern’s third goal arrived six minutes into the second half when Jan Schlaudraff fired home from close range following good work from Christian Lell.

Bayern, which beat Mohun Bagan 3-0 in front of 120,000 fans, is seeking to convert consumers in India -- the world's second most-populous nation with 1.1 billion people -- to soccer from cricket and overcome a bias to English teams among those who already follow the sport.

Indians have traditionally favored cricket, the game brought there by the British when it was the colonial power. Broadcast rights to a new six-week cricket tournament, featuring some of the world's top players and promoted by Bollywood movie stars, were sold to India's Sony Television Network and the Singapore-based World Sports Group for $1 billion, according to the Australian newspaper.

IPL or ICL whatever!!! will fail

The media is abuzz with reports that ownership of teams of BCCI backed Indian Premiere league is being sought after several industrialist and teams of English Premiership league and National Basketball Association. But I feel that the league will fail as in case of other sports club matches are played more than than international matches . Whereas in cricket more interntional matches are played . In soccer hardly four international matches are played in a month and most of matches are qualifiers.So there is craze for club matches. In cricket, there are three format. So International matches plus club matches together will in end kill the passion for the game.
For IPL to survive it will have to eat into the market of international cricket especially of test matches .

Performance based payment to cricketers

BCCI decision to pay players on basis of performance will harm Indian cricket on the long run because players will become selfish . They might start plying for themselves . This system is good in case of club matches but not in international matches where patriotism is important .