IPL is back with a bang! Well with a Big bang if I may add.
Firstly, the sane decision to shift the tourney out of the country was taken. After all the Nation’s true treasure - the electorate cannot be risked for the sake of the so called domestic cricket tournament. Then South Africa put up a great show in organizing the tourney at a short notice of about 2 weeks. The tourney has been a tremendous success with all types of people - young and old, the classes and the masses, the whites and the blacks have flocked the stadiums turning this huge spectacle into an extravaganza.
The Hitz of the tourney have been many. The first being IPL season2 being accepted by the South African public with open arms. The next has been the success of bowlers unlike the last one. The spinners and fast bowlers both have performed admirably well and have been assisted by the slow yet bouncy pitches. And of course, the South African conditions.
It’s been an even contest between the bat and the ball. This season has given rise to new stars for India, who have excelled in the foreign conditions. R P Singh has stormed his way back into the Indian team, Ravindra Jadeja has lived upto his billing of the next brightest talent, Yusuf Pathan has wielded his willow like a butcher, Ashish Nehra has marked his comeback in style, Pragyan Ojha has bowled like a dream and may be giving Harbhajan a few nightmares, Suresh Raina has been simply outstanding, Rohit Sharma is finishing matches, la Michael Beaven or may be even better and Piyush Chawla has added a few more admirers to his list.
Then there has been emergence of unheralded players like Manish Pandey from RCB who became the first Indian to score a century in IPL, T Suman from Deccan who has caught the eye of many with his uncomplicated and clean hitting, Sunny Sohal who has provided some bright starts for Kings XI and Kamran Khan who looked a bright prospect till he was reported for suspect action.
The IPL is always followed by the Glitz and Glamour because of a marriage of Cricket and Bollywood. One has been a spectator of the myriad expressions on faces of a certain Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta. To be fai,r the IPL would have scored more on the GQ i.e. Glamour quotient had it been held in India. But one thing you can be sure of is that IPL and Glitz can never be far apart.
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Coming to the third aspect- the Marketz. One can be sure that IPL shifting out of India has been a blessing in disguise. It has now caught the imagination of International audience. This may well lead to many more so-called domestic leagues starting off. Whether it’s good for Cricketing circles or not is a major point of debate, but IPL sure has had the monopoly and best of the Market right now. Only sore aspect of marketing has been using the commentators as sales personnel. A hardcore pure cricket buff is not used to a commentator referring to six as a DLFer or a wicket to Citi moment of success. Whether it’s a cue as to where the cricket is heading? Well we won’t know the answers soon.
IPL has been one amazing success and will stay so in the seasons to come. It will unearth new stars, will give a new lease of life to some struggling ones and will surely help the retired ones a really good life after retirement. So one thing is loud and clear - IPL is here to stay.
