Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 was officially launched yesterday evening. IPL, now in its 8th edition, has managed to create a stir in the Indian market with it’s over- the- top imagery and the glitz and glamour around it.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) surely managed to create a historic event, which the world took notice of. The stadiums are full for almost all matches and media/sponsors manage to create the hype around it. However, the falling TRPs of the IPL matches, the reduced number of discussions on it, the decreasing levels of enthusiasm of cricket fans, do tell us something.
IPL losing its charm is a reality now and here’s why:
Changing players, changing loyalties
The first year began well, with regional players being part of the state team. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir for their own city-Delhi. Yuvraj Singh was a Kings XI Punjab player. Sourav Ganguly belonged to Kolkatta Knight Riders and Rahul Dravid was a Royal Challengers Bangalore Captain.
However, as years progressed, and the owners wanted to win, they gave away the local players and now what we have is a potpourri. Every year begins with confusion in the minds of the viewers, who is where and who is not. How can player loyalties shift so easily? It surely is working like typical corporate environment where employees keep shifting employers. You give me money, and I will start giving my best to you.
Yes, the players are not to be blamed for this, it is how the format of the event is. They do not choose their franchise, the owners choose the players. But sorry, as a viewer it is difficult for me to shift loyalties from player A to player B every year. We have very strong emotions attached to both our cricket heroes and our state!
The glamour is embarrassing
Late night parties, cheer- leaders, and film actresses- the entire glamour attached with IPL has now become just too much. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia were together when they became owners of Punjab Team. And now, Preity is seen filing police complaints on how Ness tortured her in a stadium, while watching an IPL match. Deepika would have come for Dhoni/Yuvraj/Siddharth Mallaya (all the guys she was linked with), across various editions of IPL. This time the focus would surely be on Anushka and Virat and shutterbugs would be waiting for another bat flying kiss!
Cricket and Bollywood are two biggest obsessions for us Indians. But, most of the real cricket fans find all these as distractions when they get so intertwined.
We don’t want to hear expert comments from these celebrities during the post-match coverage. Get the coaches and players to speak more! And their camaraderie is much more fun than nonsense giggling and ornament show-off of actresses. A case in point is the recent Comedy Nights with Kapil show where Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Akhtar showed us how good friends they are-on and off the field- highlight those aspects to us!
Defunct Franchises
The tournament started with 8 teams, it moved to 10 teams, then 9 teams. The changing patterns of franchises-Deccan Chargers becoming Sunrisers Hyderabad, Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers coming and going- it just seems a big dirty business. The questioning of the owner holding patterns, their commitment to the game (e.g Ness was about to sell his stake when Punjab wasn’t doing well) all adds to a big cloud of doubt on who and what and why of the owners!
Match Fixing and Betting
Though this should be the top most reason, but this is only exposed last year and hence comes in the end. The way we would look at matches is different now. It really is stupid that teams and owners who were directly under scanner are still being allowed to be part of this event. However, that matter is under jurisdiction and hence I shouldn’t comment too much on it, till final decisions are made. But Mr. Gurunath, Mr. Kundra, Mr. Sreesanth and others, you have brought a lot of hurt to genuine fans of the game. In this case, small dirty fishes did manage to pollute the whole ocean.
Conclusion
It is a great format, with international and domestic players playing together. It also is a good launch pad for some young domestic cricketers. However, a better version of Ranji trophy matches would have served the same purpose. Why did BCCI not think of revamping that and add to 2 more months of cricket in already packed schedules of our players? It is all about money and that’s what hurts us viewers. Every year, a new chapter is revealed to us, of the dirt and malice of the people involved in this business.
I am still not completely against this format, because I do get to see the likes of Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble, Jhonty Rhodes, Wasim Akram in action. And am hopeful that a clean cricket game is what we get back one day, sans the lights-camera-action.
Hi Dora
Very correct, Although IPL shine had faded a bit,But still India is mad about Cricket and they really Pitch up, when IPL is there.
Cricket is a good entertainer and Every Coin has its flip side, Which can be ignored , uptill a limit. Don’t you think so.
I wish something as big as match fixing could be ignored Shekhar. I am optimist career enthusiast and I hope the pain of being cheated by some cricketers will be eased off soon!