- The Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament is the most happening league not only in the cricketing world but also in the entire global sporting community. We know sports disciplines like football, tennis, hockey, badminton, athletics, boxing, wrestling, and some such events are considered extremely popular among sports-loving patrons. Cricket is the most popular sport in India needs no further elaboration. However, the way cricket administrators around the world have popularized the sport deserves special accolades. Especially the Indian sports administrators deserve special mention since they initiated some of the most inspirational measures to help the game reach stratospheric levels in popularity. No wonder, die-hard Indian cricket fans have ensured the major revenue for the International Cricket Council is generated here.
PC: Zap Cricket
- Of course, there is this long-standing debate about how the shortest format of the game has severely dented the popularity of the classical format of the five-day Test. Make no mistake, any true connoisseur of cricket would always consider the longest format as the ultimate rather than go ga-ga over the T20 slam-bang variety. However, the lucrative franchise-based format has succeeded in not only attracting the big business houses to invest but also ensuring the best of the internationally acclaimed performers from different countries are available to showcase their proven skill sets. As you are aware, several frontline cricketers have foregone Test contracts to represent their countries to ply their trade in franchise-based T20 leagues around the world.
- No little wonder that every cricket-playing nation wishes to have its own T20 league for the lure of the lucre is simply too alluring to look the other way. Note that the Board of Control for Cricket in India does not allow its active cricketers to ply their trade in other leagues in contrast to how overseas players are welcomed here. The insane amount of money on offer is huge and hence, none of the top bracket cricketers would wish to forego the option of playing in the IPL. As such, in little over a decade and a half, the IPL has gained a tremendous reputation as the biggest money spinner. Since the paying public wishes to soak in the slam-bang variety, the game is perpetually designed to suit the batters rather than provide a level playing field for both the bat and the ball.
PC: BJ Sports
- This edition of the IPL has already shown how the bat is bludgeoning its way into making the ball submissive with an insane number of runs being scored with alarming regularity. Scoring more than 270 runs in the stipulated 20 overs is simply incomprehensible. The 17th edition has already witnessed such scores being scored with ridiculous ease. The batters are hitting sixers and fours as if it’s child’s play. The power hitters are dominating the field like a colossus rendering the boundary distance inconsequential. The moot point to ponder over here is where the T20 leagues are headed since the battle between the bat and the ball is increasingly becoming unidimensional in favor of the former. The paying public is not complaining though.
