I grew up in India, a nation where the game of Cricket is more of a religion than a mere sport. There have been just two popular forms of this game, the Test and the One-Day International, all along the 20th century, the latter being a more popular one. If I were to discriminate between these two forms of the game, I would say the Test Cricket is a true examination of a player and the One-Day being an exhibition.
Stepping into the first decade of 21st century, less did we dream of a much shorter form of Cricket, IPL-Tewnty20 , storming into the existence? When all the cricketing nations in the world, gave a thumbs-up to IPL-T20, I think they walked into this storm blind-folded. This storm for sure has created a whole new cricketing landscape, with an enormous glut of attraction to this new format of the game.
The IPL-T20 being run by the hardcore business franchises along side some of the Bollywood stars, giving it a commercial essence. So, this raises a concern if it has clearly amputated the true spirit of the game? Are we to bemoan the death of longer forms of first class cricket ? A meteoric rise and an euphoric success of IPL-T20, in the recent past, is looming large over other forms of this game. The popularity of prime IPL -T20 matches seems to have even pushed back some of the major Bollywood releases with the fear of jeopardizing their box-office revenues.
The IPL definitely has an upside to it though, as it has produced a crazy mix-and-match of players from around the world. This crazy unpredictable format has bubbled a lot of local youngsters into the surface of limelight. The local boys with absolutely no recognition had a lee-way to rub their shoulders with the greatest players around the world.
The IPL format has morphed the game into an entertaining business. It is the same lump of leather being hurled at the batsmen from 22 yards away, but the batsmen are seen rushing through the overs, with humungous shots sending the ball whistling all around the park, treating the bowlers with absolute disdain. Who cares? The crowd is entertained, the money is pouring in with an exponential increase in viewership. I must say that the IPL has turned the players into gladiators entertaining the world with just 20 overs.
The match-fixing and tax dodging controversies surrounding IPL currently are making things quite murky, nevertheless, the IPL is here to stay on, rocking glamorously. The only prevailing concern here is whether the grand success of IPL would have the Tests and One Day forms fade away into the oblivion? Well, all this is only as clear as mud, we will wait along time for our answers....
