We all have been schmoozing about whether multitude of cricket fans would be able to connect to a cricket format, which has their favorite players once playing with each other trying to outdo other teams now using their skills and enthusiasm to outclass their former teammates .
Can the City based faithfulness be developed over a period of 1 month and be so effective that Team India takes a backseat for a while ?
We have been gabbing about the English Premier League or the EPL going down really well with the fans and a format that could win over non cricket fans too..But we overlook that EPL is a League that has been played for close to a century now and the allegiance for the respective teams have been ingrained in their haemoglobin.
The TV Ads that have been doing the rounds certainly deserve some kudos in invoking some passion about one’s city but still a lot needs to be done to ensure city based devotion comes across.As I Am writing this three days of IPL are already over and going by the jam packed crowd IPL certainly has a great future.Cricket has now integrated with the glamour industry and with two of India’s all time favorite pastimes amalgamated The TRPs for IPL could hit the roof .And as far as early reports go TRPs of IPL have outshone that of the World Cup and that too without invoking jingoistic passion.
The Kolkata Knight Riders with two wins in the bag and being the most glamorous team with SRK at its helm and the most successful captain of India and the comeback king Sourav Ganguly leading the team,The kolkata Knight Riders is certainly calling the shots on and off the field.
Today is 21st April and on 20th April the EDEN was crammed and buzzing with cricket lovers and although a power failure that took the Nation by surprise it had absolutely no effect as SRK and his gang swayed the crowds with their exotic dance moves and clowning.
Again in the other match of the day ,Mumbai Indians disappointed as Royal Challengers won the cliffhanger.The turnout at the Wankhede didn’t disappoint and IPL is truly getting the youth and the old to swing to the cricket tunes.
IPL is certainly a newfangled idea and there will be always be those section of cricket lovers like ME who would want to watch all formats of the game as the sound of the willow is something blissful and this blissful feeling would never ebb even though Cricket is being tampered with to cater to new and wider audiences for obvious reasons.
News Channels had profitable shows on Cricket and almost all cricketing experts would give hackneyed analysis and the Pitch conditions ruling the agenda of their analysis ,IPL will surely change the way the Experts analyze a particular 20-20 cricket match as Pitch Conditions hardly play a part in the shortest version of the game and the strategy of a 20-20 match would remain undisicovered as none of the experts have played a T20 match before .So we can expect radical changes in the way T20 is spoken about and since cheerleaders are an integral part of a T20 match keeping the crowd entertained and lively expect some News Channels to sport a whole new look with some interesting value additions to keep the audience glued to post match analysis..
The Next Step For IPL to be a success beyond imagination ,it should be included in the ICC roster in its Future Tours Programme.
Just a few days back ,During an interview in a News Channel the Pakistan Cricket Board Chief had spoken about launching a similar cricket league in Pakistan and with Allen Stanford already backing a 20-20 league at the West Indies T20 could be a major breakthrough in terms of reaching out to time starved audience across the globe.
Test Cricket will die a slow death and by 2020 I envisage Test Cricket getting geared up for cremation and other incineration rituals .Many might argue that Test Cricket is here to stay but the reality is with Cricket boards getting avaricious including cricketers and other stakeholders ,T20 is going to reach an overdrive of sorts and without proper scheduling and a proper itinery being framed Test Cricket will have to die an unfortunate death.
What do you think?Is Test Cricket going to last beyond 2020.Send in your comments and please bookmark the page for regular updates on IPL and cricket in general.
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