IPL’s Migration: A Disappointment to Indian Fans

Sreelata YellamrazuMar 26 2009

The decision of the BCCI to take the IPL out of India, while still leaving scope for a great global expansion, is a disappointment on many levels.

ipl disappointment

The possibilities are endless. That the city based Twenty20 event, a domestic affair in India, could now become a household name abroad is exciting. But that it could also backfire for the very same reason is also a worst case scenario.

But the biggest disappointment is for the Indian fan. Lalit Modi has read it wrong on this one. He stated that the Indian follower of the IPL would not be affected by the fact that the IPL would now be played abroad as the largest audience are television viewers. Modi must remember that while IPL was a big television explosion that surpassed the soap operas running at the same time or blockbuster movies that fell flat on their face, what really made the IPL rocking was the fact that the fans in the stadium raised the drama in the stadium and in homes and were the single biggest envy of television viewers who would have lapped up the opportunity to be one amongst the crowd.

Having personally witnessed the match at home amongst family and friends and watching it live in the stadium, one has to say that there is no beating the latter. By that count, it is hard to imagine Indian cricket lovers wearing their favourite team shirts and logos and walking around foolishly in India while all the action is happening in a remote place far away.

The most farcical of the expedition has been the entire politicking over IPL’s status and its stature in the eyes of the Indian public. Undoubtedly it was put forth as a domestic tournament with foreign undertones. But that it is much more than that should have become more evident in the course of the first season.

But would even the IPL surpass the Lok Sabha elections? Absolutely not. But could they have co existed? Possibly. Lalit Modi stated that by taking IPL out of India, the two important events in the Indian calendar are indeed co existing. But in order to co exist, should they not also prevail under the same roof?

The BCCI did not seek the approval of the government before it was initiated upon. But with the terror crisis in Pakistan being what it is in the aftermath of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers, there was no taking this lightly. There was deriding comments that the only reason that this domestic tournament (there are others happening if one turns on their sports channels showing domestic cricket) is calling for unprecedented security is because the lives of foreign cricketers is being deemed far more important than one’s own.

Unwilling to truncate the tournament, possibly as a way to ensure that the sponsors who have undoubtedly put in a great deal of investment are given their due, the BCCI decided to show that it could do something in collusion with other boards that have only envied the Indian version of the domestic Twenty20 tournament but failed to capture it quite in the same way back home.

With politics thrown in in good measure with Sharad Pawar’s adversaries being also dragged into this picture for not allowing the smooth running of the IPL in India, this has been one sad, dragged out debates that is neither likely to end nor likely to result in what the Indian fan wants.

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