IPL:BANE

IPL success is perhaps what is bad for cricket. It follows the T20 format of the game. The game finishes in a matter of three hours, which is good for the viewers, sponsors and cricketers, but cricket as a game is loosing its essence in the process.

                    
ABOUT 4 years  back, all the founders and franchisees of the Indian Premier League (IPL) were apprehensive about how the Indians would react to this tournament. Whether they were ready to follow city specific teams? Would the crowds in Kolkata go silent when Dravid would hit a boundary and rejoice when he would get out? Would the Indians be able to tolerate this 45-day long ’cricketainment’? How would the pundits react? If these were all the questions that the IPL had posed, then the organisers can be proud of the fact that with all the highs and lows, the IPL has been a big success.

                       
Charu Sharma, the    former CEO of the Royal Challengers, Bangalore team, in an interview to NDTV, had said that the primary reason for flying in the cheerleaders was that the franchisee owners were not sure of the success of the IPL and the cheerleaders would be an added source of entertainment.

                       
The T20 format of the game is pleasing to the eye; it has got all the masala of a Bollywood blockbuster. There would be twists and turns in the game, and all of it would be over in just three hours. But from the cricketing aspect, T20 hasn’t been successful. It’s been great for the viewers, the franchisees and even for the cricketers who have taken home millions of dollars, but cricket has lost out in the process.

 All the captains go up to their bowlers and tell them to bowl it in the block hole. Perhaps the only delivery, which is difficult to hit, is the ’Yorker’. So, all captains want their bowlers to be bowling it. The game has turned mechanical a lot. If you want only ’Yorkers’ to be bowled, why do you need a bowler? You might as well have a bowling machine aiming at the block hole and bowling it there.


The success of the IPL has posed another major problem for cricket. We all know that it is money that runs this sport. After the success of IPL with thousands of people streaming in to the stadiums to catch the game, will test matches face the same response? Now that the people will get addicted to this format of the game, their interest in test matches and ’One Dayers’ will wane and so will the Television Rating Points (TRP’s) and the amount of moolah being put in to the game. Will test matches go extinct in a few years’ time? Will we never get to see Ishant Sharma bowling eight overs at Ricky Ponting or Dravid or Chanderpaul batting till the last ball to save a test match. Cricket is about to change and in front of our very own eyes.Some people would say that you give the people what they want. And if T20 is a hit with the audience, then why not? But the problem arises that when T20 was started, it was decided that it would not change the number of Test and One Day matches being played.


As a viewer, I enjoy T20. But I am apprehensive about this being the future of cricket. Is cricket all about hitting. What about the delicate flicks through mid wicket, or the caressing of the ball through the off side? If the batsman drives a full toss through the covers for a four, he will have the captain asking him as to why he didn’t hit it over mid wicket for a six.


If the test matches and the ODIs are regarded as the primary meal, then you could call T20 the pickle. Just to add spice to it. But if the pickle takes over the actual meal, then it is sure to have adverse effects on your health. Let’s just hope in the success of the IPL, cricket doesn’t lose out.