The journey of IPL- India ka tyohaar

Next week IPL's 10^th season will start. It seems that IPL started just yesterday. It has been amazing but controversial 9 years journey for IPL. IPL has scored many hits but it has its fair share of misses also. It has galvanized the world cricket like never before. Now suddenly Cricket has become a very lucrative carrier options for youngsters. Apart from BCCI, I think Subhas Chandra owner of Zee TV should also be given credit for IPL. Mr. Chandra started privately funded ICL (Indian Cricket League) in 2007 when Zee TV was not awarded cricket broadcasting rights by BBCI. IPL may have been BCCI’s reaction to now defunct ICL. In 2007 When BCCI announced its intent to held IPL next year, T20 was not very popular in India. Due to initial BBCI hesitation, India has just played one T20 but things changed dramatically within a few weeks. The young Indian Team under charismatic Captain Dhoni won inaugural T20 world cup and whole country went crazy after this format. The first player auction in 2008 was a new experience in Indian sports. Many people opposed the use of money power in auction of players. But BCCI went ahead and the stage was set for 1^st IPL.

Brendon Mccullum set the IPL stage on fire in the very first match. He scored then world record 158 runs not out on just 73 balls. This was a better start than even a fairytale. There have been many memorable innings in IPL, but Mccullum’s innings will always be written in golden words. The 1^st IPL was a memorable one. The unknown team of Shen Warne (Rajasthan Royals) stunned Dhonis’ Chennai Super kings to win the maiden IPL. If we see the IPL statistics, now suspended Chennai Super Kings have been the most consistent team of the IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians, both Hyderabad teams has their own share of dominance also. IPL has been full of controversy. A few controversies are as - Lalit Modi’s suspension, Harbhajan Sreesanth slap-gate, molestation charges on Luke Pomersbach, Ravindra Jadeja one-year ban in the 2010 IPL, Exit of Kochi Tuskars in IPL 2011,Shahrukh & the Wankhade episode, 2012 spot fixing, 2013 spot fixing & betting case (which finally lead to suspension of RR & CSK), Gambhir-Kholi incident etc. This list is long. IPL even went to South Africa in 2009 due to elections in India and matches were banned in Maharashtra in 2016 due to draught in the state.

Has Indian cricket benefited from IPL? I would certainly say YES. India became 50 over world champion in 2011 and India has been no.1 test team twice –Once under MSD and now under Kholi. Just look at Indian test team of 2017 – Virat Kholi, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Murli Viajy all achieved fame via IPL initially. They could have come in Indian team anyway but IPL proved to be a short-cut for them. Once Dhoni was accused of favoring CSK players like Ashwin & Jadeja in Indian tea, but I can say that Ashiwn-Jadeja as a pair performed better than Kuble-Harbjan in 206-17 season. But other non-IPL like Pujara players have also made it to Indian team on basis of their performance in domestic cricket. And today Pujara doesn’t have an IPL contract also but he is the new WALL of Indian test team. SO, we can say that IPL may be a short cut way of getting into Indian team like Manpreet Goni, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma etc. but you need real talent to succeed at highest level. A kholi or a Ashwin would have anyway come into Indian team but may be a Murli Vijay or KL Rahul may not have played for India without the help of IPL.

IPL has also secured the financial future of many 1^st class players. Every season you will find some less known players earning crores of rupees. Even a normal first class earns somewhere 10-30 lakhs in just 6-7 weeks. And even in 2017 this sum is not an easy money for youngsters to earn in India. Also, IPL has helped many foreign players to earn good money & get familiarize to Indian condition. A B De Villiers is more familiar to Bangalore pitch than Dhoni or Rahane. IPL is just 9 years old but it has already become a big league. I hope it will rub shoulders with English Premier League & NBA in coming decades.