But if Modi and Srinivasan are on a collision course, it shows up a familiar weakness in the Indian business and administrative environment. As a nation, we run on personalities not systems, on charisma not content, and that is why we build such few strong institutions. A fine municipal commissioner or, a rarer commodity, a good member of parliament, can make a huge difference but as soon as they are gone, either due to bureaucratic or electoral fickleness, their effectiveness tends to go with them; normal service is resumed, chaos reigns. That is largely because we are a nation of individuals who believe systems are for everybody else. But if the IPL wants to be equally successful, be just as strong a property, twenty years from now, it will have to learn to live without Lalit Modi at some time as indeed will India Cements have to learn to live without Srinivasan.

I suspect you will find that most great institutions are established by visionaries, it is their passion that takes them through the early years of acceptance and frustration. But thereafter institutions run themselves, built as they are on solid foundations. You can see that at IIM-Ahmedabad where the great Vikram Sarabhai was the visionary. It is as powerful forty five years later. Infosys is headed that way with Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani slowly stepping aside. The IPL has a visionary in Lalit Modi but if it wants to compete with Wimbledon or the English FA or the Augusta Masters it must create strong systems and ease away from personality cults. Modi and Srinivasan cannot oppose each other!

I fear we are also seeing the appearance of another challenge before the IPL. For it to become stronger, the IPL must seek out strong franchises because eventually it is they who will popularise the sport in their territories. Well run franchises will produce strong teams and strong teams will produce a competitive league. That will in course of time become the lifeline of the IPL; eight or ten or twelve professionally run franchises. That is why I am a bit concerned at all the attention being bestowed on film stars hoping to buy franchises.

I am not saying film stars cannot run them but I would be wary of my sport being looked at as a plaything. In the end the IPL is a serious cricket event and that is the only way it can survive. If the IPL allows itself to be seen as a glamour toy, it gets into the public consciousness for all the wrong reasons. Movie stars have always attended big sporting encounters, they add a little something to the event, but they are not the main course. In their movies they are, but at a big sports event, they aren’t. I fear sometimes that the IPL gets a little too consumed by who is coming to watch it and I hope that doesn’t extend to who is going to buy its franchises.

A Salman Khan versus Shahrukh Khan story is fine for the entertainment or news channels (have you noticed how often we club the two together) but I am not sure that is how we want to promote a cricket match. It has to be Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru not Mukesh Ambani vs Vijay Mallya. The IPL will do well to look at two solid franchise owners when the time comes next year; people who can promote the sport and make it stronger.