From Sunil Gavaskar
The world’s best T20 tournament starts tomorrow. There are T20 events all over the world and there is also the ICC T20 World Cup, but not one of them has the buzz that the IPL has. As with any sport there will be followers and there will be detractors just like with any player there will be fans and some who are indifferent to the player. That is all part of life. Where it gets a bit complicated is when one starts to think that they are the only ones who are right and blame the ones on the other side of the fence for unreasonable reasons. What the IPL has done is to separate those connected with it in some manner against those who have no connection with it. One blames the other for selling out, while they in turn are called jealous and envious because of that silly accusation.
This year’s IPL will be a crucial one. Last year the IPL surprisingly didn’t get the following it was expected to, after India’s stupendous win in the World Cup, but many thought that it was due to the fatigue factor. Following the Indian team’s progress had been nerve wracking to say the least and once India won the cup the dam of emotions broke and there was not much left to spend the same kind of feelings for the franchise. In terms of finance too many had exhausted their purse strings in getting tickets to the World Cup matches and so didn’t have too much spare cash left for getting tickets for the IPL matches. Pricing of the ticket is a factor and since the next World Cup in India may well be another two or three World Cups away people spent for that knowing that the IPL is an annual event.
This last year after India winning the World Cup has not been good for Indian cricket. The fans are unhappy and whether that displeasure will be shown by not supporting the franchises will tell us a lot about the Indian supporter.
The tournament promises to be a much closer one than the previous ones. The franchises have bought players with plenty of thought to the balance of their teams and the requirement of the teams. The emotional buying that one saw in the earlier editions has been replaced with more research and more awareness of the possibilities that the player brings to the title chase. The batsmen and the all-rounder’s are the key in this format of the game. The bowlers are invariably going to be clobbered especially on the Indian pitches. The spinners may have an itsy bitsy chance in the odd match, but otherwise spending big money on bowlers who are going to be in the game for only four overs makes little sense.
The format itself is such that no team can be called favourites. There is plenty of experience in all the teams and all teams have a terrific combination of youth and wise heads too. In the end, it is the team that fields well that will prevail.