The initial IPL auction brought with it not only a scramble for the world’s top talent, but a cacophony of hype and excitement the likes of which hadn’t been seen in the world of cricket for many a year. Following this initial outpour of enthusiasm, there has been a distinctly muted response to the tournament itself from the British press, with websites such as BBC Sport not even producing scorecards for matches.
Is this right? Has the global cricket fan fallen out of love with the IPL as quickly as it arrived? And should we care about this far-flung smash-a-thon?
In my opinion, most definitely. Not just for the entertainment value inherent in watching Twenty20 cricket, but for the repercussions this will inevitably have on every cricket discipline around the world.
For a start, the matches themselves are gloriously engaging. From the vast quantity of sixes smashed into the crowd to the sight of middle stump cartwheeling towards the keeper as a slog is missed entirely, every moment carries intense excitement. The fact that every ball matters in this format of the game means that even a series of dot balls means something, adding great pressure to a batsman who needs to attain a strike rate of at least 100 to produce a ‘good innings’.
Not only this, but almost every notable world cricketer is in attendance (apart from the obvious English absentees). This itself guarantees a combination of rip-snorting yorkers and silky cover drives that will have any cricket purist purring.
Find yourself not caring about the outcomes? Gather a group of like-minded cricket fans and select teams to ‘support’. The matches suddenly gain immediate relevance, with grudge matches between friends cropping up almost daily. The emotion of following a team, added to the exhilaration of Twenty20 cricket, makes for some fascinating armchair battles.
The impact that the IPL will have on world cricket will be seen in the forthcoming years. We could even see the death of the 50-over game, as fans will want either the intricacy and brains of a Test match or the breakneck speed of a 20-over match.
Furthermore, countless young cricketers are gaining invaluable experience from masters of the game. Players like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Adam Gilchrist and MS Dhoni are passing on the fruits of their experience to a new generation of cricketers, with the young Indian players seeing the primary benefits. The laws of the league stipulate that at least four under-21s and four Indian players must take part in any one match, giving those selected immediate access to the sport’s superstars. We could see a batch of Indian players boosted by the experience of matching up against the planet’s best.
So, after the dust has settled and world cricket once again emigrates from the subcontinent, we could see a sport totally changed by the experience. This, more than anything else, underlines why we should care about the Indian Premier League.