India, March 23 -- Kavya Maran and her IPL controversy: The IPL was never really about cricket in the first place. Individuals like Kavya Maran and the conversations around them are a reminder. It is entertainment first, cricket second. Its length is comparable to a blockbuster Bollywood movie and it carries as much glamour thanks to wealthy celebrity owners of the franchises and the general presentation of it all. In the IPL, cricket and drama are intertwined.

And that's precisely why this league is so uniquely combustible. Money (some of the richest teams in IPL are worth more than a hundred million dollars), fame, regional pride, and a media that's constantly on the go. They feed off the immediacy of it all. Every action happens withi...