Earlier cricket was played within the nations. The only teams which were existent were the national teams. And all the people involved around the cricketing bodies were the ones who had a close connection with the game. With time, the game evolved and slowly the franchise cricket started to shape up. Slowly and gradually, the emphasis on franchise cricket took over the importance of international cricket. With the rise of franchises, the involvement of many non-cricketing people increased significantly. And with the increase of franchise owners exponentially increased, their influence and entitlement also increased.

Which is why now the owners who hardly have any understanding of the game, are now seen scolding the players who have done wonders at the highest level. The recent incident of Sanjiv Goenka having animated chat with KL Rahul after Lucknow lost to Hyderabad was a sight which garnered the attention of the fans. And seeing the Indian star being at the receiving end of wrath from LSG owner, infuriated every cricket fan. Goenka received a lot of backlash for the same and he then had to host a private dinner party for Rahul in a desperate attempt to clear his image.

People only noticed all of it as it happened on live television. But there are numerous occasions when it has happened in the past with many players when the entitled owners go to any extent to vent their frustration on players. At times they retort to some unusual tactics like politics and defamation.The same Sanjiv Goenka did a similar kind of thing back in 2016, when he appointed Smith as the captain of Rising Pune Supergiants by sacking Dhoni. He received lot of flak for the same, but still didn't hesitate to troll Dhoni. He even went to the extent of using social media to troll and defame Dhoni. While one agreed that Dhoni was playing for the team owned by Goenka, the disrespect to the most successful captain of India was extremely degrading.

The issue of owners and players has been prevalent since a long time. Now Preity Zinta might be a cool owner of her franchise, but it was not always the case. In the first edition of IPL, she was disappointed after 2 consecutive losses to the extent that she shifted 8 players from 5-star hotels to normal ones. And on one occasion, she also troubled Yuvraj Singh, who was Kings eleven Punjab captain then, questioning him on how can big players like Sangakkara and Jayawardene drop catches. The foolish question by owner early in the morning baffled Yuvraj, who had a late night party with his team last night, but he had no other option but to get back to sleep after answering it.

It is still slightly acceptable to see the owners asking for an explanation, but what Vijay Mallya did was outrageous. Back then when he was still in India, he used to attend all the matches for his franchise RCB. Once he sent the RCB captain a list of players he wanted to be a part of playing eleven. An infuriated captain who knew that Mallya had no idea about cricket decided to respond to him. And he reverted by saying that "if you want to choose the playing eleven, then you play the matches and we all will go back to our homes". The response humbled Mallya, who later apologized.

These are only a handful of instances which are known to everyone. Behind the camera whatever happens is never known to the masses. Owners are involved in a lot of things. And this unnecessary involvement of the franchise owners causes a negative impact on players and teams. Players have to listen to the franchise owners, and might end up doing something which was never their forte. Plus the constant pressure from the franchise owners asking the main players to play all the matches, and not take a rest affects the players badly, who then perform poorly in the important tournaments happening post the IPL. Only if this interference is controlled by the board, will the cash-rich league turn out to be better.

One can clearly understand the adrenaline of the franchise owners for their team's performance. While the fans feel the heat sitting in their homes, then the franchise owners who have put a lot of their earned money are definitely bound to be angry and anxious at times. And their reactions to situations are absolutely justified for the same. What is not justified is their behaviour in public. They might have some issues with any particular player, and that's their right. But the issues should be resolved behind the closed doors, and not in front of the live television. As the players who the franchise owners scold, are national heroes and are admired and respected by millions of people from all the generations. Hopefully the change would happen sooner.