Indian Premier League – A Hit or a Miss?
The first thing which comes into my mind when I think about IPL is the money invested in it. IPL is a county cricket, a game played between teams of different regions at domestic level. Each team is owned by a franchise. Take a look at the amount invested by different franchises for their players. The figures are staggering.
Bangalore Royal Challengers – Rs. 19.8 Crores
Chennai Super Kings – Rs. 23.7 Crores
Delhi DareDevils – Rs. 22.5 Crores
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers – Rs. 23.5 Crores
Rajasthan Royals – Rs. 12.8 Crores
Kolkata Knight Riders – Rs. 24 Crores
IPL Mohali – Rs. 22.9 Crores
Mumbai Indians – Rs. 20.5 Crores
When India exited from the World Cup in the first round in 2007, imagine how the sentiment of public was. Everyone was running away from cricket. The Twenty 20 world cup victory changed the entire dynamics in less than six months. Some of the big names in Indian business such as Dr. Vijay Mallya, Mukesh Ambani, and movie stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Juhi Chawla are already associated with IPL. That makes IPL a blend of commerce, entertainment and sport in that order.
With players of different countries playing for a team together, no doubt, it will be an entirely different experience. India’s traditional rivals, players from Pakistan and off late rivals, Aussies will be in the same team. That’s something people will seldom get to watch.
But the Ultimate question remains “will the IPL be accepted by the public with open arms?” Will it create a spark in the country? I am skeptical. Take the previous Tri Series for example. When India was playing against Australia, millions of Indian fans from across the country were supporting the team. But this wont be the case in domestic cricket. A Kolkata fan won’t be so much interested in the tournament once his team is out. People like to stand for the “country” as a whole than for regions. Indian Cricket League (ICL) which is going on currently didn’t generate much public interest. So whether IPL will be a success or not, only future can tell.
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Write your About me page.
And why do you have so many tags, most of which do not figure in your post?
Indians watch Cricket, and that’s it.
From your argument, other than Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyd, Mohali, Delhi and Jaipur no one should watch IPL as their teams are not playing. This will not be the case. People from Jharkand not only would like to watch Dhoni, but Sachin as well.
People from Bangalore would like to watch Robin even if he is playing for Mumbai.
Basically people will watch Cricket.
When you talk of cricket.You surely have my comment.
IPL will surely be a hit,atleat the first time.
1) Because of the glamour involved.
2) Because of the hype involved.
3) Because of the players involved.
ICL was a flop reason :
1) Has old players.
2) Lacks the hard hitting which makes 20-20 so special.Audience want to mainly to watch good hitting.
3) Lack of difference in grounds.
IPL overcomes all these.
@ Sandeep :
All my tags figure in my post. The tags are copy pasted from the post content.
And i agree that Indians watch cricket. But will IPL gain the popularity similar to that of Twenty 20 world cup in India ? I dont think so. Also the tournament is over hyped and over estimated.
nah.. by tags i mean there need to be some information on the tagged ‘keyword’
for your post categories could be ‘cricket’
and tags could be ‘IPL’, and ‘twenty20′
Anyway it’s your personal choice
@Sandeep,
My About me page is updated now. Sorry for the delay.
What’s so sad about the IPL is that cricket was the one major sport that had been played for the fun and the excitement rather than the money, but now, not anymore…
Players can be “traded” from one team to another, putting a price on their heads! This is disgusting… As a guy who’s played professional cricket all my life ,I feel sorry for Indian Cricket!
@Nikhil,
Well said. Totally agree with u!