Gideon Haigh told recently, "T20 is a TV property masquerading as cricket".
Once cricket becomes a TV product, it is sure to bend to viewers needs and show what they would want to see. So all the effort goes to make life hell for bowlers and the work light for batsmen. The boundary rope is brought in considerably increasing chances of hearing the now too plentiful "DLF maximum". Then there is the mongoose bat to deal with any venom from the bowler's end. The broadcaster's are leaving no stone unturned to allocate more airtime to advertisers than the actual action. The latest move is to show the ads playing in the big screen between balls. Shrewd indeed!
Whatever maybe the promotion or the place, it all boils down to the quality of the product. IPL will continue to grow and build more muscle. Its star cast ensures quality cricket, and at the end of the day it is the competitiveness which is the main USP. I only hope that bowlers get to have more say in the scheme of things and not imagine that going under 10 RPO is decent.
So the next one month is packed with intense action. All the more reason for every Tom, Dick and Harry to gossip, write, comment, criticize, blog, discuss, and what not. So the show begins, and only time will if the IPL will get bigger than the EPL or the NBA!
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