Cricket And IPL

The gentleman’s game has had a makeover. So move over Test cricket and One-Day cricket as the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament is here to stay.

The BCCI-backed IPL claims it will give serious competition to the saas bahu soaps on television as a "sizeable number of women" have shown "tremendous interest" in the shorter format of the game.

With a new format, Bollywood actors promoting it and business tycoons financing the teams – the game has just got bigger.

Lets have a look at what experts think about it.

Charu Sharma (Chief Executive of Bangalore Royal Challengers) believes that there is nothing wrong with movie stars being involved with the IPL.

"What’s the harm? You talk about film stars being involved with sports, the cricket T20 in particular. They are practically involved everywhere, whether it is politics or human rights causes or television. So, what’s the problem here? Let us not be cynical, let us be a little mature.”

However, Vinod Mehta (Editor-in-chief : Outlook) had some reservations about the latest revolution that has taken the entire cricketing world by storm.

“I don’t want to sound like a kill-joy but IPL is to cricket what page three is to journalism. It is a bit of harmless diversion and a bit of tamasha. And if somebody makes money on this, then good luck to them. But in page-three journalism we have to be careful that it should not become page-one journalism. Similarly, if IPL, which has the potential to undermine Test cricket and One-Day cricket, becomes the sole concern of the BCCI then we are going into very tricky waters.”

It was just a part of what these experts think. Now lets have a look at stats :

-According to a new survey there has been 70 per cent increase in TRP ratings of cricket after India's World Cup win in the Twenty20 format.

-BCCI had netted a total revenue of $1.749 billion (Rs 7,000 Crore) from the IPL even before the first ball.

- 80% of the people that after the IPL it would be really very difficult to watch the test matches.

IPL is changing the rules of the game. Its adopting the way the soccer gurus have long before chosen to follow. Franchises exist in soccer since a long time and they have been able to keep the Fans on their heels, hungry for more even after getting so much of it, never getting satiated.

But IPL though similar to footie in many aspects is a lot more different. Its changing the game in a revolutionary manner. Its taking cricket away from where it started ie test cricket.

But what I think is if cricket has to live it needs a lot more IPL's.

No one in this busy worls has the time to sit and watch a boring test cricket match for 8 hrs a day. (Comapare with soccer matches of 1.5 to 2 hrs). People come to watch games for excitement and a changeover which T20 promises to provide. Everything has to move on. Change is the law of nature and to live in a changed world you yourself need to change which is what IPL and T20 cricket is doing.

IPL is about creating new value. As long as every one involved in the IPL get something back, the IPL will succeed. The players, the Cricket Boards, the Corporates that own the franchises, the advertisers, the TV companies and the paying public; all will have to get something back from IPL.

The extent to which cricket will change post IPL will only depend on its success and how BCCI handles its success.