Ready to rock, again

The summer madness is yet to begin in some parts of India. Another madness which hits India and overseas around this time has begun — Indian Premier League. Two days into the IPL 2023, one can already feel the pulse, throbbing and high-voltage. In coming weeks, culminating into the final on June 1, fans would see plenty of new things, cricket-wise and in terms of marketing.

Almost a decade ago, when a top brand weekly news magazine had put on its cover the IPL as a billion-dollar baby, it made great news. Today, the valuation, which grows every year, has risen to such heights that other leagues around the world look anaemic in comparison. What began as an experiment in 2008 has become blue riband as well as a blue chip, in many ways. Reasons for the exponential growth of the IPL is no longer a topic just for sportswriters but also for business media and financial analysts. Afterall, whether a team, or the more fashionable word, franchise, does well, has nothing really to do with the cricket dished out. This is a fusion of cricket and commerce. And the way the IPL has grown makes all happy.

Win or lose, the IPL is a winner is the new philosophy. For all those who doubted the creation of a domestic T20 league over 15 years ago, today, they watch in awe and admiration at the way the IPL has exploded. It is a whole fat ecosystem, which provides cricket plus entertainment. To make it bigger and fatter, the innovations continue, on a regular basis.

Long ago, in January 2008, when the first IPL auction happened in New Delhi, it was much to the consternation of some nations and cricket writers, including the respected Late Peter Roebuck. Since then, the IPL has only ensured that gaping jaws convey more emotions! Never mind, for the massive cricket ecosystem, the success of the IPL is good in many ways. Of it, competing cricketers are only a part, not the sum and substance.

The IPL is a larger circus, where there are many more characters in play. Nothing can be ignored in the IPL. Coming just after the conclusion of the WPL — Women’s Premier League — at home, the IPL will again dictate how prime time is consumed. There is a paradigm shift in the way the IPL will be seen/viewed. There is no longer a need to be sitting in front of the television, called idiot box some years ago. The IPL can be seen on phones, tablets, iPad and whatever other gizmos you can grab. For this event to be shown, now free, on Jio Cinema, is a win-win situation.

What is a further definite enhancement of the fan experience is commentary in customised 12 languages. This just goes to show the IPL has its own languages now, from English to Hindi and Bhojpuri to Gujarati. And the way former cricketers have been grabbed for commentary, men and women, Jhulan Goswami included, getting to hear their views is a big deal. Add to it Anil Kumble in Hindi and Chris Gayle in English, the IPL is already soaring. Oh, how does one forget the traditional Brits, stiff upper lip types. Even the BBC will be doing shows on the IPL, details of which are awaited.

To be sure, the expansion of the IPL has been multi-pronged. To say that India is a Super Power in cricket is right and wrong. Right, in the sense of hosting two massive domestic leagues and controlling the ICC. Wrong, because performances in the ICC events have been below the mark for Team India. Heck, when the IPL begins, debates on club versus country are more academic. Cricket commentators are paid employees of the BCCI, or engaged by the IPL council, so there is no way you will hear anything overtly bad about the league.

Innovations and the IPL have gone hand in hand. This time, there have been several more changes. How and why this has been done is not the question. Constant is boring and change is exciting. So, if changes in the IPL 2023 have taken place, in four broad ways, it is for making it more exciting. There was never any dearth of excitement in the IPL, even when big teams started flopping. Two prime examples from 2022 are Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

The Impact Player Rule, announcing the Team 11 after the toss, review for wide and the no ball, plus a few more changes, all this will ensure the IPL excitement increases. Traditional cricket fans or the dying breed called purists are gone. Either you like it or you lump it, the way cricket in the IPL is seen has travelled from big cities to small towns. The digital rights growth is a massive step in this direction, where there will be more chatter. We live in an age of instant stuff. Instant coffee, instant noodles, despite it being unhealthy, and instant cricket. So, if the flavour in the cricket is going to be spiced up, none will object to it.

Sample this, cricketers from abroad, notably Australia and England, love the IPL. Both these nations have their own cricketing structure, yet the clamour for the IPL is massive. Be it as a player, coach, physio, masseur, commentator or strategist, the IPL is a jamboree everyone wants to be part of. Past and present, the cricketing world has changed crazily.

When the world faced anxious moments from March 2020 onwards due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the IPL was hit. Yet, the organisers found a way to shift the event to the United Arab Emirates and host it in a Bio Bubble. Now, the worst fears are over. Covid has changed from pandemic to endemic, which means you need to take it in your stride, provided you have taken all the vaccine jabs. Thanks to the vaccines for the virus, air travel has become easy now. And that reason alone has ensured that this time the IPL will be played on the home-and-away basis.

Some of the venues in India are swanky and smart. Barring Delhi, which is still ugly, the way the Narendra Modi Stadium in Gujarat and the renovated Chennai Stadium stand out grabs eyeballs. For old charm, Kolkata and Bengaluru

plus the Wankhede Stadium are there for posterity. The return to home-and-away format in the IPL will be much more enjoyable. Buying tickets for a real feel inside the arena is buzzing, where the price band is variable.

There may be some pampered cities where the ‘pass’ culture still exists, but, certainly, fans of Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore are still ready to pay and watch inside the arena. A few things from the initial days of the IPL have been done away with. We hear less about ‘after-match’ parties and so on. However, the war on social media over the IPL, with loyalties divided amongst various teams is already soaring.

‘Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.” wrote Late Alfred Lord Tennyson in the poem ‘Charge Of The Light Brigade’. His poem was regarding a war and soldiers giving up lives. This young generation of cricket fans uses social media like a war which goes to any level in the name of loyalties. Each social media platform is bursting with the IPL, and in the 2023 season, numbers generated will be mind boggling. Elon Musk will also love it!

Back to main cricket, there are romantic relics as well as current cricketers ready to fight tooth and nail in heady contests over the next few weeks. For all talk of workload management and so on, the IPL franchise owners are not here to do charity. They will milk the system, drain the players. Cricketers get paid for it in sums which are almost obscene. For those on side-lines due to injury and rehab — Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, and Shreyas Iyer — it is sad.

How about someone like MS Dhoni, the undisputed King/Thalaiva of Chennai Super Kings, this is a shot at redemption. The team did badly in 2022, but the summer of 2023 could be better. They also have the services of a man now in form and fully fit, Ravindra Jadeja. CSK and its fans continue to support each other since 2008, through the highs and lows. Even the two-year ban on CSK years ago, due to ugly incidents in the IPL, have not hurt it.

Sample this, Dhoni versus captains like Hardik Pandya, David Warner and a man fighting to save his career, KL Rahul. There are many more out there in the field. Yes, the IPL is do or die, though, in no sport, does a team want to lose. We have seen in football, how Lionel Messi is still hungry after winning the FIFA World Cup and has gone on to score over a 100 goals for his country. CR7 — Cristiano Ronaldo — has no qualms about playing club football in Saudi Arabia. He continues to ply his trade.

Football heroes have shown they manage workload well, despite the rigours. No cribbing, really. It is only players like Rohit Sharma who are crying about workload management and taking a break. Yes, fast bowlers have to preserve themselves. Someone like KKR coach Chandrakant Pandit explained how the team management and support staff handle players’ workload, rest and recovery.

There will be travel in this IPL, home and away, making it harder. Perform or perish is the mantra. We will see which teams and players can preserve themselves best and survive. For the time being, leave aside talk of how India are preparing for the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia in June in London and the ICC World Cup (ODI) in India.

When the IPL is on, stop cribbing. If you are a pro-cricketer, prove it. If you cannot survive, too bad. That’s IPL for you!