by Siddharth Raman
About a year back when the decision to launch the IPL was made public, there were a lot of apprehensions regarding the success of the tournament. Critics predicted that the cricket viewing public will be saturated with an overdose of T20; crowds would not want to throng stadiums as they did for an international match involving India and that the tournament was just too long. The rest as the cliché goes is history.
home and away ss
The period between April 18th and June 1st of 2008 proved every one of the predictions wrong. Not only did the IPL do that but it also brought to our notice so many things that were hitherto considered inconceivable. Film makers decided to postpone the release of their movies for fear of competing with the IPL and prime time soap operas whose TRP’s were through the roof just before the IPL tanked during that period similar to a short circuit on Dalal Street. The IPL had the proverbial last laugh and once it was over almost everyone was looking forward to season 2.
March 2009 – a month to go for the second season of the IPL and the realization dawns that the IPL dates clash with the largest democratic exercise in the world. After nearly a fortnight of revised schedules and back room lobbying the decision was reached to stage season 2 in South Africa. A little ironic considering the fact that the tournament is named the ‘Indian’ Premier League. The organizers apparently were left no choice and this was the only feasible option for them. In terms of financial viability as well IPL outside India is better than no IPL at all. Also the match timings have been scheduled in such a way that for television viewers (who comprise more than ninety five percent of the overall viewers) there will be no change in the match timings. But one thing cannot be denied, the crowds who filled the stadiums (although a negligible percentage of total viewer ship) added much more value and entertainment to the IPL than one can imagine.
In what may seem to be quite a paradox, the first season of the IPL may actually be one of the worst things that could have happened in the context of season 2. The concept of home and away games was a huge hit in India with local crowds backing their home teams with the kind of fervor and zeal that was very rarely seen. It even came to a point where Indian players were at the receiving end in away games. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were not treated in a way they were accustomed to by the partisan Mumbai crowd. Rahul Dravid also was amazed by the silence that greeted a boundary he scored in away games. This added a new dimension to the IPL and was a part of the complete package. Nobody ever imagined the crowd in Jaipur would cheer an Australian and a South African or the Mumbai crowd would root for a Sri Lankan, West Indian and a South African. It will be interesting to see how this aspect of the IPL is dealt with this time around. A look at the schedule for season will show that the home and away concept has been done away with for this season. The locations have been chosen purely on a demographic basis and Durban seems to be a lucky city thanks to the size of its Indian community. It will definitely be analyzed much more in depth once the tournament begins. There is no doubt that the tournament will not fall short in terms of its glamour quotient but one wonders whether the Indian community in the rainbow nation will be able to match up to their compatriots back home.
One of the defining moments of IPL season 1 came during the middle of the tournament. Shoaib Akhtar was making his debut for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Delhi Daredevils in front of a near capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens. In one of the most hostile spells of pace bowling seen in the IPL he cleaned up the top order of the Daredevils. Most notable was the dismissal of Manoj Tiwary (although playing for Delhi, Eden Gardens was his home ground). Tiwary was dismissed plumb in front of the wicket by the Rawalpindi express and the crowd went delirious!
An Indian batsman being cleaned up by a Pakistani bowler in front of the batsman’s home ground and the bowler is actually being cheered – who would have thought that this was possible?? This after Shoaib stunned the same crowd into silence nearly a decade back after yorking the living daylights out of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar in consecutive deliveries. One wonders if the television viewing audience will be treated to such drama in season 2 of cricket’s biggest extravaganza.
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