IPL or Indian Premier League cricket started in 2008 with a big hype and

excitement. It has so far lived up to the hype. IPL has opened up a number of
opportunities for cricket players-especially domestic players in India, as well as for
players from other countries.

For players like Shane Watson and others, IPL became the launch pad for return to
the national team. It has been a big boon for Organizers-especiall y its promoter
Lalit Modi, Cricket Control Board of India-BCCI, stadium managers, advertisement
companies, income tax department and for overall economy as well.

In fact, the recent auction of 2 teams for the season IV of IPL by Rendezvous group
and Sahara group has fetched so much money for the promoter Lalit Modi that this
event seems to be recession proof.

However, focussing just on the subject as to whether the IPL is good for cricket,
here are a few
facts:

1)Traditionall y, cricket has consisted of Test Matches, or the five day games. These
are played between 2 teams for 5 days maximum, for nearly 6 to 7 hours each day.

The second form has been the One Day Internationals, or the ODIs as they are
called. These are shorter than test matches and are just for one day. However, the
ODIs are for 7 to 8 or even more hours in a day.

Cricket has been eagerly watched, played and followed over decades (and even
more than century in many countries) in the countries of Australia, England, The
Group of West Indies(Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago), NewZealand, India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh as well as a few more
countries.

Yet, if we compare cricket's following to many of the other games or sports, it is far
behind. It is far behind rugby, football, tennis, table tennis, badminton etc. Cricket
is hardly played in US, France, Spain, Portugal, Japan, China, South Korea,
Indonesia, Russia, and most of the European and Latin American countries.

One reason has been that these games other than cricket are much shorter, except
for longer matches in Tennis. Eg. An average football match spans over 2 to 2.5
Hours. Hockey matches span around 2 hours or less. So is the case with Table
Tennis, Badminton as well as Athletic Track and field events.

Here comes IPL with its drama, cheerleaders, loud music and a timeline of around 4
hours. Somehow IPL appeals to daily office goers, as they can work in the morning
and watch the teams play in the evening. One of the biggest promise of IPL, which
is yet to materialize is that it can spread cricket to countries which rarely play
cricket, or have not altogether played it- like US, Russia, Romania, Egypt, Brazil,
Argentina, as well as most of the North and Latin American, European as well as
many
of the Asian countries.

2)IPL provides many domestic players in Indian cricket, a launchpad to be in the

national team. Players like Manish Pandey, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Manpreet
Gony, Saurabh Tiwary, Manoj Tiwary, Naman Ojha, as well as others are well
known primarily due to their exploits in IPL.

3)Many foreign -Australian, NewZealand, South African and English players have
got the chance to stage a comeback to their national teams through their
tremendous performance in IPL. Shane Watson is one such case. He came back to
the Australian ODI team owing to his excellent performance in IPL in 2008.

4)Most of the IPL matches have been sell outs- thus ensuring the stadium owners
as well as the cricket board huge money. This money can be used for promotion of
cricket and for cricket  players' training etc- thus strengthening the game.

The above is not a complete list and IPL has provided and promises to provide
much more. It has also bought Indian filmstars and cricket players closer, and
added glamour to the game.

Overall, IPL has had a very beneficial and far-reaching impact on the game of
Cricket.

Whilst the Commonwealth Games may be approaching it is still the IPL which is
considered by most to be India’s biggest sports carnival. The global recession
seems to have not affected anybody who is a part of the Indian Premier League.

The IPL has approximately 85 players. Talking about the brands, there are about
115 brands which are endorsing these players and everything around them. The
brands sponsor everything under the sun from a catch, to a six, boundary, half
century, century everything. They have even occupied the giant screen for every
decision.

How can we analyse these events?

How can we ignore the advertisements? IPL broadcast has shown us a different
style of telecasting advertisements. In case if the batsman is hit by a bouncer on
his helmet, within no time advertisements will cover those twenty seconds. I
wonder if a day comes when after every bowl, there is an advertisement covering
the follow up and the run up of the bowler only to telecast the bowl being bowled!

I mean, on one hand, we can consider IPL to be a good platform for players like
Ambati Raidu, Saurabh Tiwari, Vinay Kumar who have to try and make an impact
on the Indian national selectors with little time to spare. On the other hand, the
payment which they receive might actually force them to create comfort zones of
their own. Take this case study for example…
We all know what happened to Ravindra Jadeja. Ask Shane Warne and he will tell
you how badly Rajasthan Royals have been missing him throughout the
tournament. He was banned as he was indulged in ‘the law of bargaining.’ The all
rounder has been suffering a ban which is to be reconsidered by the BCCI. But I
guess it’s not his fault.
It’s the enormous amount of cash flow which tends to drive the youngsters to think
beyond cricket!