IPL experience

The IPL (Indian Premier League) for cricket has been launched India this year. It features 8 teams with players from all over the cricketing world. They play the new and exciting 20-20 format. Teams are based in the Indian towns/states of Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Punjab, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Obscene amounts of money is being paid to the players and also invested by the promoters and owners.

Now that we know what IPL is, the fun is in predicting where it will be 5 years hence. The games certainly are good, exciting and entertaining. It has been a win-win situation in that players are getting a lot of money for their talent while the fans are getting a highly competitive game for a reasonable ticket price and time invested. For now, it looks to be a success and in 5 years it is quite possible we will have very loyal fans for all teams thereby driving interest further high. The thing to watch out for are the pitfalls when too much money is at stake. Betting, leading to game fixing is probably the most dangerous and could hurt the league badly. Others are players sacrificing national interests, too much glitz and marketing, too high ticket prices, etc.,

I finally got a chance to check out one game in person at Bangalore between the Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers on May 3rd. Ticket price at 500Rs was too high I thought. The location of the seat was not so bad and the stand was full. We got an exciting game going to the final ball for the result with home team winning. Facilities were bad. Narrow entrance. Not much option with food. Wasting 30Min's to get some questionable chat or samosa would be stupid. Chips and drinks were being sold by wandering vendors. However, since the drinks cups were sloshing all over and the vendors were putting their hands inside them, it was best given a miss! Cheerleaders looked pathetic, in my opinion. I feel they don't fit the cricket format. Music and songs on the loud speaker were good and added to the excitement. Fans even got a Mexican wave going for more than 10 rounds!

That's it. Lets see if this is a flash in the pan phenomenon or how cricket is going to be in the future....