The auction is over, players have got their moolah, team names have been announced, logistics are in place, ticket sales will start soon and on April 18th 2008, we shall witness the first edition of the Indian Premier League, or should I say THE DLF INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE.
Millionaires have been made in exchange of 44 days of games.
BCCI is the biggest winner, hands down. The players have benefited too. The buying teams – well, they believe they will recover their “investments” within a couple of years.
All’s well that ends well.
For us viewers, most of us are all excited for this BIG T20 tournament to begin and can’t wait till 18th April. We believe it’s going to be one cracker of a championship. There seems no reason to believe it won’t work – after all, the T20 world cup was a smash hit, and what’s more –
But there is one small glitch. WHO WILL YOU SUPPORT ?
To enjoy any sport, I believe & correct me if I am wrong, you need to support a player / team, you need to take sides. There will be very few people who watch a sport just to see a nice game / match / race etc. Most of us would want a Nadal to defeat a Federer, a ManU to defeat a Chelsea, a
Cricket, unlike football has traditionally been a “country vs. country” sport. We support a team – we support a nation. In Football, national games are much less watched as compared to club matches. So a ManU or a Barca will have more loyalty than a
I am a Mumbaikar, so logically, I would support the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. But in a match against the Kolkata Knight riders, when Ishant bowls to Sachin – who would I cheer for ?
When a R.P. Singh (
When Sree Santh gets Dhoni out, will I be happy or sad ?
When Ponting helps Dada’s team win against Dravid’s, will I be happy ? For that matter, will Dada be happy ?
I won’t enjoy the cricket. I am not a “Mumbai Indian”, nor a “Kolkata Knight Rider” supporter. I just support the Men in Blue. What about you ?
2 comments:
Hey, I agree with your sentiment and respect the same. But to support the men in blue we do have ample opportunities. BCCI is not getting rid of the old format. Being an ardent cricket fan and crazy follower of the Indian cricket team, I too would be in a fix as to whom to support. But this is just a twist to the regular format and the entertainment that cricket brings along with it. One of the other positives would be fostering relationships between cross country players which will make future ODI competitions between countries healthier. And thus we can avoid a repeat of the Australia tour.
Cheers!
The IPL, ICL...are all commercialising the game of cricket and the players to such an extent that pure thrill of watching a sport, the joy of a cheering for your team has got lost somewhere. Bottom line to this whole thing is money....The IPL was started as an ego issue to the ICL which is a similar format to what Kerry Packer started years back....but history shows that did not succeed.After playing the IPL do u think that the players would really care about playing for ones country in the same spirit...i dont think so
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