Indian Premier League (IPL), India’s first International Franchise-Based Sporting League, is just round the corner, and we can already sense the buzz around it. Since its inception, Indian Premier League has always been under scrutiny of critics, media and few cricket lovers alike, who have argued that Indian Premier League is just meant for entertainment and moreover it is detrimental to the development of the long formats of the game.
But the very fact that cricket is the only game, which has three distinct versions, each of them requiring a different set of skills and mindset to excel, tells us how progressive and evolving this sport is. Let’s keep the flaws aside for some other day. Here are few of the factors that make Indian Premier League a boon to the cricketing world.
Also Read: Yuzvendra Chahal in no hyperbolic sense is a product of Indian Premier League
1. IPL gives middle class lads wings
Indian Premier League has provided opportunities to domestic talents to come up and show their talents at a world platform. This has ensured a pool of cricketers who can play cricket without having to worry about how to sustain their families. Gone are the days when it was this way or that way, a rigid binary system, where it’s either 0 or 1. IPL has given more opportunities to middle class youngsters aspiring to be cricketers, Ashok Dinda, for instance, played an IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders even before making his Ranji debut because Ricky Ponting noticed him in the nets. In the Pre-IPL era all this was just fantasy and a distant dream.
2. IPL has transformed the social structure
Indian Premier League has changed the way cricket is watched in India. In the months of April-May when the summer vacations are on, IPL is a bigger brand than even Bollywood. Families come together to watch cricket matches. Sundays are meant for double headers, there is something meant for everyone, and it’s difficult to come out of an IPL match dissatisfied. In a cricket obsessed country, IPL comes as a drizzle of Cricketainment, quenching the thirst of cricket and entertainment lovers. If not the players, people come to have a glimpse of Preity Zinta or Shah Rukh Khan. Add to that with IPL reaching tier two cities like Kanpur in the last season, IPL is spreading its root with every passing season.
3. Breaking the walls
Indian Premier League has broken the walls of nationalities and languages. A few years back, a picture of Mathew Hayden and Suresh Raina having a laugh and enjoying their play-station stints, did the rounds. IPL helped them leap national boundaries. This in turn is helping improve our international cricket. In a cricketing nation where sledging is a key issue to be addressed, this makes a lot more sense. Similarly, Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds have come a long way since Sydney Test and even shared dressing rooms together, thanks to the IPL. An interesting story was in previous years IPL when Mustafizur Rehman of the Sunrisers Hyderabad would only understand Bengali, however the team’s captain David Warner would have no clue about it. Yet their partnership worked out quite fine to the extent that Sunrisers Hyderabad eventually won the title and Rehman was one of the most successful bowlers of the team.
4. World Class Platform
Indian Premier League has given Indian domestic cricketers an opportunity to compete with the best in the world and even sharing the dressing room with the best, which has only improved their game. It isn’t for no reason at all that Jasprit Bumrah is India’s new death over sensation. He owes this to the fact that Lasith Malinga was his teammate in the Mumbai Indians and he often shared the bowling attack with him, taking tips from him on bowling yorkers and slower ones. Yuzvendra Chahal already knows the kind of pressure and aura at an international match and so it wasn’t any different for him when he was handed the new ball in a series decider at Bengaluru. Not only Indian domestic cricket, even players from Associate Teams like Netherland’s Ryan ten Doeschate get noticed because of Indian Premier League and get a chance to compete with the best.
5. A format relatable to non-cricketing nations
If cricket has to spread to various countries like USA and China, it has to be in the 20 overs format and a cricketing league like the IPL has ensured that sport lovers in such countries are attracted towards the sport. This will enhance Cricket’s global presence and thereby its standards. Only when Cricket is accepted by more countries worldwide, can a distant dream of it being incorporated in Sporting Competitions like the Olympics and the Commonwealth be realized. Thus IPL is quite relatable to such countries, suitable to their lifestyle and their ways of watching and enjoying sport.
