A must watch for more reasons than one
Heady entertainment and the best of cricketing action allow the IPL to be a benchmark for global sports franchises
In April 2015, the contrast could not have been sharper. On the one hand was the Indian Premier League, where Chris Gayle was trying to blast Trent Boult and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in front of a raucous Bangalore crowd. And on the other his teammates, Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach and Jason Holder were trying to bowl out Alastair Cook’s England in Antigua on a wicket that was offering pace and movement to start with.
The first question that came to mind is should Gayle not have been there? Or Darren Sammy?
While we don’t have definitive answers to these questions, one thing is certain. The IPL brand continues to be robust despite all the scandal and fixing taint. Fans continue to support the tournament and this year it will be no different. It has garnered enough strength as a standalone brand and as Sourav Ganguly commented, “Irrespective of what happens in the lead up to the tournament fans will surely watch the IPL. This tournament has become staple for the Indian middle class every year and is essential to sustain the cricket economy.”
Be it the departure of Lalit Modi or the spot fixing taint. The IPL has indeed had its share of controversies. Yet it has only emerged stronger in time. So what is it about the IPL that makes it tick? Is it still the support of Shahrukh Khan and his Bollywood entourage? Or is it about cricket, which is intense and exhilarating in most IPL games?
Let’s pose these questions a little differently. Imagine Shah Rukh Khan coming out to support a Ranji Trophy team. Or for
that matter, Anushka Sharma being present regularly to watch Virat Kohli ply his trade for Delhi in the Ranji trophy. Will they be able to draw thousands to the stadium or is it something about the IPL brand that has captured people’s imagination?
The answer is a no-brainer. It is the mix of heady entertainment and cricket that makes IPL what it is. It caters to a larger constituency of the Indian populous than any other sporting event and that’s what explains its success despite the many scandals, which have impacted its credibility. And here cricket plays a huge part. Unless the IPL was a serious cricket competition, it would never have been able to capture the fancy of the fans. Its core, serious cricket, has continued unabated and despite all the distraction surrounding it, the core has never been disturbed. ●