Indian Premier League has once again showed that it has all the ingredients that make a competition a success. IPL has overshadowed all the tournaments since the time it came into existence five years ago. No tournament prior to this had such fan following and IPL-5 has the tournament to another level.
Whether it's pure intense cricket matches, or the half-clad cheerleaders; whether it's last ball finishes or a Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth; whether it''s the centuries by Chris Gayle or Shah Rukh Khan taking on the MCA officials, it all make for a front page news.
So what makes IPL so exciting, is it the intense cricket, the involvement of Bollywood or the controversies that never seems to leave the tournament? The answer is the mixture of all of them. Let’s take it step by step.
Intense cricket on field: IPL brings some of the world’s best players to play against each other. Franchises with truckload of money can decide the players who they want in their team by spending thousand and millions of dollars. Hence, the competition is simply awesome to watch.
Right from the first season, IPL saw the engagement of cricketing greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Pollock to name a few. IPL provides the opportunity for the young Indian talents as well. Now they have the opportunity to share the dressing room with their idols. The intensity level is very high on the field, every team wants to do well, people get selected on the basis of their IPL performances, players have made their careers out of it and so on. IPL provides the best three hours entertainment that people can dream of.
Bollywood with cricket! Recipe for a perfect hit:
In India two things are always in demand, one is cricket and the other is Bollywood, and when cricket mixes with Bollywood, hits like IPL happens. For the first time in India, fans got to see such involvement by their favorite Bollywood stars with their cricketing stars. Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty all have their IPL teams and that just lights up the battle. Shah Rukh is one of the biggest stars in Indian film industry and whatever he does makes the headline. So when he bought Kolkata Knight Riders it had to be a hit. The celebrations that followed KKR’s IPL-5 win showed how bigger impact this star has had on the tournament. Shilpa Shetty had her share of happiness when her team won the inaugural season. And Priety Zinta’s love and support for her team is for everyone to see.
Controversies that spice up the IPL:
IPL season one saw one of the weirdest incident to have taken place in India, Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth after the match. Both the players were banned and IPL’s relationship with controversies started. IPL has always been under the microscope and the tournament has provided some of the most controversial incidents seen on a cricket ground. Whether it is a player who is accused to consume alcohol on ground to an owner who was accused to get into a tussle under the influence of alcohol, IPL has seen it all. IPL is a tournament that brought one of the biggest points of discussion in India- the cheerleaders. The after match parties created a stir in the cricketing fraternity and raised doubts over so many things.
By Indian Sports News Network
