Disclosure: I am not an IPL hater. This is the first season since 2008 when I am following the tournament with interest. I have watched four games fully and caught big chunks at other times.
Here are some observations:
1 My highpoint of the tournament so far has been to see players like Dishant Yagnik and Shanbaz Nadeem stand out. This is a wonderful stage for them. Ten years ago cricketers from Banswara and Bokaro did not dream of playing in front of packed houses. They never imagined a day when their names would be splashed across newspapers. They did not make much money. And they were forgotten.
Bihar’s Ramesh Saxena played one Test for India but not many noticed when he died last year (he was also part of the selection committee that picked Tendulkar in ’89). Nadeem would have known him – Saxena served as the secretary of the Jharkhand Cricket Association in his last years. I wonder if Nadeem thought of him when he received a Man-of-the-Match award.
I will cheer for Nadeem every time he bowls. He stands on the shoulders of mostly forgotten cricketers from the region like Saxena, Hari Gidwani, Saba Karim, Subroto Banerjee and Mihir Diwakar (I am not including Dhoni here because he’s an outlier; Dhoni would have played for India irrespective of his hometown).
Gidwani scored five consecutive Ranji hundreds in the late ‘80s. Diwakar, a medium-pacer, carried the torch in the noughties. These men often took the field knowing that no national selector was taking note. They had no financial security. They played on because they loved the game, only to be swallowed by the sea of obscurity.
2 It was good to hear that part of the IPL’s riches was being set aside to help some who missed out on the gold rush.
3 Is the IPL cricket? Is T20 cricket? These are interesting debates to have but I am not pondering them when I am watching this tournament.
Think of the time you first watched cricket. Did you know what it was? Did anyone define cricket for you? You saw some people playing in the gully and tried to emulate them, right? So I will stay clear of that debate for now. I will get to it when I write about the IPL’s knock-on effect on the sport.
4 I find it funny how people get annoyed when it is alleged that the IPL is not cricket. I am the opposite. I find it liberating to think of IPL as ‘not cricket’.
I watch the IPL like I watch basketball (a sport I love). My reaction to a four is same as a my reaction to a two-pointer; a six is a three-pointer; and a wicket is a foul. Now you may have your own analogies but these parallels make it simpler.
I have stopped comparing an IPL six with a Test-match six. I don’t brush it aside as a shot executed against a trundler. I am not fuming over commentators acting as if every six in the IPL is a shot heard around the world (I’m looking at you, Danny Morrison). I know that Chris Gayle smashing a teenager who is fresh out of U-19s is not “unbelievable”. Neither is it “sensational”. Nor is it “amazing”.
5 Like while watching basketball, I observe the moment but quickly move on to how people react to the four, six or wicket. My focus is only briefly on the shot (unless, of course, I’m analyzing a six from SRT) but my mind moves on to the impact of the play. How does a fielding captain react to a six over midwicket? What is the bowler going to do next? Will the batsman try the same shot again? Is he observing the fielding changes?
I don’t get enough of this. Which brings me to …
6 … the infuriating way in which IPL is televised. And I’m not even talking of the embedded ads. I am talking of the camera work. Sometimes it is pointless to replay a boundary three times; it is not necessary to show every six again and again; it is ridiculous to pan to the cheerleaders at the drop of a hat.
Instead maybe it’s the time to zero in on the bowler, maybe it’s necessary to show us an aerial shot of the field, maybe it’s important for show us what the fielding captain is doing, maybe one needs to focus on the dug-out, maybe the commentators can say something that is remotely tactical. Maybe, just maybe, producers can make us realize that a game (and not a carnival) is taking place.
7 A few months ago, I caught slices of the Big Bash league in Australia. The quality of camerawork was relatively high-class – they informed us much better, the angles were illuminating. And the commentary was within the human hearing range. The quality of the commentary was nowhere close to Channel 9 standards but it was far more bearable. I was not bombarded with sponsor names every second. I did not reach for the mute.
8 Also in the Big Bash league, the crowd noises were clearer, the sound of bat on ball more natural. Sometimes I could hear the wind. In the IPL every match has a loud buzz. To understand what I’m saying close your eyes and listen to the sounds. You will feel the aural quality of the game diminished.
9 What’s lost amid multiple replays and high-decibel IPL commentary is the nuances of the game itself. Now you may look at me and mock me – Is that even a game? Is there even an ounce of nuance? – to which I say: Yes.
There is nuance aplenty. Just that you don’t see much of it on your TV screens, you don’t hear enough about it from your commentators and you don’t read much about it in your newspapers and websites.
You are made to believe the whole tournament is a tamasha by the same people who fume when you call it a tamasha.
Now how ironic is that?
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superb… echoes my sentiments exactly… love cricket in any form…why knock a format specifically?love and follow test cricket but watch ipl…
I think the last two lines capture what I find off-putting about cricket coverage on television. It is for this reason I like going to the ground because then atleast I can ignore the noise and focus on what the players are doing. I guess the producers either don’t want to make it an informative experience or the market doesn’t want it. I tend to lean toward the latter.
Market doesn’t want it? really? What next? Ravi is the greatest commentator on earth coz he’s everywhere – market validation? Or that Indians love Morrison’s commentary? So, anything where the audience (or consumer if you prefer it that way) can’t influence the administrators to change the way they work, it’s by default market’s choice, is it? People stuck on to the game even during match-fixing fiasco, can we infer that as market’s validation as well?
Any criticism against IPL is often met with one standard response – It’s the Markets bitchezzz….in such instances, I wonder if I should outrage more as a cricket-tragic or a market-apologist.
U meant that basket ball is tamasha. . .good boy. .actually i read tamasha as samosa and hence concluded. .ipl is a samosa with lot of chatni . .
As usual very well articulated sid. Agree with you entirely though i dont see the telecast quality improving any time soon.
The biggest problem with IPL, i believe, is the lack of an international window. It is totally unfair to make players like Sunil Narine choose between IPL and national duty. If the ICC insists that test cricket or international cricket is premier form of cricket and there cannot be any compromise, then they should ensure that these forms of cricket are the most financially rewarding. Some boards like NZC have been wise and hence avoided unnecessary conflict with the players.
Of course, i do realize that for a window to be created, the BCCI should be willing to share the bounty with other players.
Sarath,
The cricket season for West Indies coincides with the IPL. NZ’s cricket season ends before the IPL. Ditto for Aus and SA. That’s why you see the player availability problem.
At last one of the more balanced piece written about IPL. I am excited because we need professional sport in India and a successful IPL may lead to other leagues …
Thanks for the post, Sid. Forget about IPL. Imagine IPL wasn’t started at all. I want to know how you would have reacted to T20 format. Ofcourse you will not have the noise, tamasha, bollywood stars etc. And the format wouldn’t have become this popular at all with Teams playing only 1-3 T20s in every tour. I always beleive a ODI WC will be more popular than the T20 WC. So the problem mostly is with the IPL as you clearly mentioned the tamasha was lesser in BBL.
I do believe that IPL is cricket. Only that the BCCI and IPL organizers are trying to paint and polish the cricket with various fancy rules and conditions that upsets a lot of genuine cricket lovers. IPL would be much better and closer to, say a normal T20 game if
1. We have lesser matches. Is it necessary for the teams to play 16 matches to decide the final 4. We don’t do that in ODI WC or even T20 WC. Is there any cricketing reason to this other than generating revenues for the franchises and IPL? A smaller tournament with two groups would make it easier to follow and also solve the ‘international window’ problem.
2. I don’t understand why a team is having 30+ players. While many teams use the first 5 matches to identify their best combination some teams don’t want to change their winning team. And MI till now hasn’t found their ideal opening batsmen for the last 2 seasons. If number of players are joke the number of support staff including head coach, batting coach, fielding coach, mental conditioning coach, masseurs, chefs etc etc makes the joke funnier. I remember India made an international tour without a head coach.
3. By the time a fan settles down with a team, there are changes, exchanges, tradeoffs and you will have a completely new team.
4. What is the larger purpose of a player playing a game? To come out successful or to Win the game. You ask the foreign IPL players why they are here, most of them say “to have fun”, ‘to experience India”, “to share the dressing room with legends” and some of them even say “for the money”. This is where Test cricket lovers felt cheated. This is not wrong as many of them are telling the truth but certainly there can be a better system where we can see good, competitive cricket.
IPL has got all the resources to make it one of the best domestic leagues, be it players, sponsors and fan following. However they are just being wasted on all irrelevant things.
Sid, I don’t get annoyed when someone doesn’t accept IPL as cricket but it does irritate me when someone expects everybody to hate IPL or writes a blog titled “Don’t watch the IPL”.
It is the terrible commentary and much below par telecast where they can’t show anything more than fours and sixes are putting me off IPL. I want to see the young players play, but just can’t bear those screaming commentators. I haven’t seen Pujara bat after he was injured last year. Has he come back? Has he batted even once?
I treat IPL as a filler in the evenings when there’s nothing else to do or nothing else to watch on TV or as an accompaniment over drinks with people hardly interested in cricket, except of course when Tendulkar or Dravid are batting as then I do watch it. The less said about the production quality, commentary, camerawork and the knowledge of the studio presenters the better. Any dwelling on these aspects of the tamasha will only lead to frustration as nothing at all can be done about it. However, what I find most irritating are the high pitched exhortations of the seemingly fabulous, which actually most of the times is little above mundane, and the commentators’ absolute lack of conviction. One hardly hears any commentator expressing any opinion at all. What they do is simply follow the camera and the statistics shown on the screen and repeat the same as if the entire audience was illiterate. Also, the revered SMG has to stop putting words in mouth of the players and act as if he knows exactly what the bowler said to the batsman after dismissing him or what the batsmen on the crease are discussing. The most ridiculous instance of this was when Steyn clean bowled one of the MI batsmen in that magic spell of his. One could clearly make out that he uttered the ubiquitous “F**k You” send off to the dismissed batsman, which the reverend SMG insisted was “Go Home” and he repeated it thrice lest someone might misconstrue Steyn’s utterance!!! And yes, for the most part, IPL is certainly not cricket. It is rather a stage for the players to showcase the ordinary (most of the Indian bowlers and fielders) along with the outrageous (AB’s reverse sweep sixes).
I think the stupendous success of the first edition of IPL has served as a circular loop of feedback. The thing is, for good or bad, IPL was always marketed as Cricketainment and coupled with its commercial success, the reasoning developed that it’s coz of the entertainment that it gets the eyeballs it does. Cricket was always there, was it so successful before? No. So, what has changed now? Yes, it’s the entertainment. People love seeing the cheerleaders, SRK and all other Bollywood stars sharing screen space with the cricketers. It’s a family package, there’s something in it for everyone. You spin the yarn enough, it can appear to be scarily coherent!
What if IPL had been just about cricket? Would the commercial results have been any different? I would happily bet against it. The real selling point of IPL is actually the opportunity to see the all the superstars in action all the time. In fact, even absolute loyalty for franchises is not good for IPL. You may support your team, but you must be excited to watch all other stars in action everyday. Is there another sport, where a staunch supporter of one club/franchise/nation ends up watching much more games of other clubs/franchises/nations (in fact, in the case of IPL there’s a certain uniformity in audience for all franchises, though the support level as such may vary) in the same tournament? Is the ratio as skewed?
In fact, IPL by virtue of being commercially as successful as it has been, has also lent extraordinary credibility to the T-20 format as such. Tests vs T-20s was never an ideological debate in the pre-IPL world, heck it was not even a debate of any form. Now, it’s almost a conflict of ideology as much as a difference in taste. I am not sure if IPL would have been any less successful if it’s played in the ODI format too. Pit Dhoni agt Yuvi, Sach agt Dravid, Steyn agt KP….and so on… the overall audience might have been lesser; it may not have brought in as much new audience into the game as IPL in its T-20 avatar has done,, but the advertising canvas that ODIs provide is larger too. In terms of commercial success alone, an ODI IPL could have been as big an idea if not bigger.
Yes, thats all we are saying – its business not the game that the IPL really cares about. Notwithstanding all the exposure and finances it provides to the obscure players around the country, the adverse effects on performance of the team in the intentional arena is there for all to see. I do not believe that the BCCI did not have sufficient funds to take reasonable care of the State level players before the IPL took off. Even in 2008, the BCCI was by far the richest board in the world. In fact, the sorry state of the domestic players is also a result of the BCCI’s selfishness and lack of vision. When Australia and England can have successful and decently popular leagues of 4 day games, why has Ranji Trophy been in a rut for time immemorial? I guess its largely because of the kind of matches that are played in Ranji Trophy – absolute no contests, sleepathons where the bowlers are treated as second citizens and most ordinary of batsmen can hit big double hundreds day in and day out (Ravindra Jadeja hit one last year). This, as we know, happens because of the nature of the pitches prepared for domestic games. So, after killing the domestic structure due to sheer callousness, negligence and stupidity, the BCCI now hails the IPL as the saviour of the domestic cricketers. Ever heard of dark comedy? This is it.
Mahesh : Good points. But I am not sure I agree with you last part about ODI IPL. Consider this –> I spent Rs.900-Rs1200 for each ticket last year and I took my son (11) to 3 games – one of these my entire family joined (self + Son + Daughter + Wife). I am again planning to take my entire family (we do that with another friend) for CSK Vs DD match. Each of the last 3 years I also done a match with colleagues from work. I can bet you I would not be able to do this if it was ODI IPL. I think T20 enables casual followers, my wife is following every CSK game, when I am travelling and I call her, she talks about the game!
One thing I hate about IPL is they goddamn make up their rules as they go (like when I was kids if I owned Bat and Ball, I got away with chaning rules on the fly). I am probably day dreaming but I hope that some how IPL will become more professional and be run like NBA, NHL or Baseball in US in next 5 years.
Sathya,
Fair point. That’s why I categorically said ‘commercially’. I appreciate the fact that T-20 has brought in new followers to the game, which an ODI IPL may not have done. But gate receipts have never been a major source of revenue for Indian Cricket, it’s peanuts in the overall context. Also, if you lose a casual fan here, you might get a snob, who refuses to watch T-20, back….and it’s arguable to have a snob as your regular audience than a casual fan, coz casual fan can go away sooner than the snob. Anyway, these are minor points. ODIs are more than 2 times the length of a T-20, which lends itself to more than twice the number of advertisements and hell of a lot more Karbonn Kamal and DLFer plugs. We aren’t even talking intrusive ads yet. So, even if you only play half the ODI matches as the no. of T-20s as per the current schedule, you might still make the same money as you do, if not more. Also, lesser matches will make the tournament more meaningful and less draining to watch. With better context, the life-cycle revenue of the game is also a lot higher – highlights, special packages, DVDs etc.,
For instance, the broadcast rights are approximately $8 mio for an India ODI and $2 mio for an IPL match – both are inflated anyway, but let’s just go with the assumption that they are the fair values in the long run, or that both are equally inflated. An ODI is 4 times more valuable commercially than a T-20. Make whatever adjustment you want to make for the difference between an IPL and an international match. ODIs are still very much a cash cow for Indian cricket at least, a much more sustainable cash cow at that.
My broader point is the theory that IPL is an embodiment of the commercial potential of T-20 as a format is bunkum. IPL is not successful so much because of the format of the game as much the format of the tournament itself – mostly Indian superstars, with some foreign superstars thrown in for good measure, playing against each other everyday for two months.
Me thinks IPL would have been better if there were fewer teams. I dont think there are 63 good Indian players worth watching nor are they 36 exciting foreign players currently playing (I mean Alfonso Thomas, Richard Levi, Luke Pormersbach, James Franklin etc etc). I know the logic about hard working cricketers who have the time under the sun and how we should support that, but we dont go to see movies made by some hard working off beat producer director making boring movies or we dont buy sub standard goods simply because it is made by hard working people.
That said I agree with you that this is the first time since 2008 (novelty?), I am more keenly folliwing the IPL. Maybe after the recent drubbing we got, it is more of a relief to watch matches just for the game and not worry about who wins or looses. Or not having to worry about whether Yusuf pathan actually slowed down between 27 and 30.
I heard Harsha for the first time this IPL yesterday and that was a relief. Glad that Brad Hogg is playing and not comentating. The only other commentator that I listen to is perhaps Pommie Mbangwa. The rest are at best cheer leaders. And then we have to bear that Shonali Nagrani on ITV4 constantly dirupting saner voices in the studio
Absolutely brilliant stuff again, I think once you stop comparing it to test cricket you would realise that this is by no means absolutely meaningless cricket. Lot is at stake for franchises and you can so better planning all around this year. As for the coverage I have cribbed innumerable times in the last 6 months about not being shown the field placements, it’s such a fascinating aspect of the game that it defies belief that broadcasters completely ignore it. I wouldn’t mind something like the computer games showing the field at the bottom corner
Also maybe it’s just me but thanks to living in a hostel I don’t get to listen to commentary but during the DD- MI game couple of days back I heard ppl like Alistair Campbell, Reeve and Ackerman who weren’t that bad really .
Boss, I will tell only one thing. Bloody purists, elitists, sachintards, dravidtards, morrisontards, rahanetards & unadkattards will all have their opinion and fill this space with 100 comments. But truth is & will always remain that this IPL vs Test cricket vs book cricket vs CCL is all just a different version of the classic question….
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ungalku rajini pudikuma kamal pudikuma?
Good Post..It has been told to people to stop comparing and try to enjoy everything as something new rather than drawing comparison.
Very well written. I agree with most of the points, and to which I don’t, I lack good arguments! Lol
Very well said.
The point about IPL not being cricket interests me a lot. I tend to see it more as something that is meant to entertain, than something which satisfies the aesthetics of a game, per se. That said, it *is* at heart still a game, and that is something which must be preserved, as you go on to mention. The problem for me begins when people begin sneering about how it is ‘not cricket’, and try to drag tests and ODIs in the argument to evaluate the relative merits of each format. I think this is the classic case where we mix intensity of contest with the scope of contest (stakes involved). I do not know whether I phrased myself correctly there- if I were to rephrase, I would say all those last ball six victories we have been seeing this IPL were all intense matches, but it is not like they were not ‘great’ matches in the sense that the scope was involved, or from a fan’s point of view, the emotional involvement which would make such matches memorable is not to that deep level which makes impressions last for years. This same lack of narrative makes practically ensures that in the short-term future (and quite possibly, over a longer term also) we are not likely to a see a fierce battle for the best IPL-team ever, or the best Rajasthan Royals batsman of all time. I do not have ready examples, but I would think that would be true of most sport formats where players from multiple nationalities play for clubs- nationalism being the stronger feeling, the inter-country matches will always be the ones which hold a narrative, while the inter-club matches will always be the ones who have more of an entertainment appeal. I am not a football fan, so I do not know how that works there.
As re the vexed question of which format to choose, for the same reasons stated above (narrative, scope of contest), tests will, I guess be the format to choose for the sport-lover, but due to the pure entertainment value the T20I or IPL will always be the more popular of the three formats. (one fact worth remembering here is that the IPL might have dwindled in popularity, but it still has more viewership as compared to the other two formats).
The last few points which you make are, IMO the most important of the lot esp wrt the future of the IPL. I don’t know if you have noticed it, but a hell of a lot advertising spots in this version’s telecast (whenever I have managed to watch a few matches) seem to be given over to ads for shows being broadcast on the Sony network, or for the network itself. That, I guess, cannot be said to be a very healthy indicator of the advertiser interest (and by extension, perceived interest of the viewer base). Maybe they will take notice, and hopefully that will lead on to better telecast quality in subsequent versions. But that, of course, might be wishful thinking: in a hurry to improve ratings, they might as well make the thing more kitschy and garish.
(Sorry, I have written a lot and said very little) 🙂
Really good piece Sidvee. Echoed my thoughts. The commentary and coverage should be a lot better and this is actually a very watchable entertaining event.
the chilli is HOT..Media never behaved because of their focus on bottom-lines !
Mahesh : I see your logic, its the broadcast rights powering sports everywhere there is more potential for broadcast revenue from ODI IPL than T-20 IPL.
Here is the catch most professional sports leagues are successful because of fanatic fans and also because they are good family events. I do not see how ODI IPL could be a family event ? \
Sathya
PS for some reason I am not able to reply to reply!
I just want to say one thing. IPL was the 1st ever tournament where i could love & enjoy & cheer Ricky Ponting’s marvelous batting skills. I was a KKRite back than. But ever since Dada’s eviction, both KKR & Ricky Ponting SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!