IPL or SAPL?

Today it began. The Indian Premier League (IPL)’s Second Edition. I did not even bother to see the opening ceremony or for that matter the two matches that preceded it.

Last year I was amongst the people who stood in a huge line to get inside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore to see the Opening Ceremony of the IPL’s First Edition. I had never been to a live cricket match before and I guess there were hundreds, maybe thousands like me. Other than that there were definitely thousands and lacs of people who turned to the TV screen and got glued to it for 6 weeks. I also followed almost every match through cricinfo.com or the TV.

So why such a drastic change?

The answer is pretty simple. The IPL this is year is not being held in India, but in South Africa.

Let me explain a bit more.

The reason for the craze last year around was not that it was a 20-20 Cricket match and thus a new format. Rather it was the feeling that this is something special accompanied by patriotism that India has been able to produce such an innovative idea and then has converted it into an immensely entertaining business. All of us felt proud that Indians had “bought” foreign cricketers who were more than willing to fight with their respective countries’ cricket boards to play in the IPL. We wanted to be a part of it.

When the First Edition ended, I had decided that I will try attending more matches in the Second Edition, but alas!

I guess the IPL’s top decision making management did not realize why IPL got to be so successful whereas the Indian Cricket League (ICL) failed. Though you can say that it is because of the presence of “better” players, I would argue that IPL captured the imagination of the common man who was suddenly willing to leave early from work and attend/see the matches. It was able to create a hysteria which is seen only when India plays in the Cricket World Cup. It is we, the common people of India who screamed hoarse in the stadiums last year round and made the advertisers and broadcasters sit up and invest in the IPL’s Second Edition. 

How will this management get the common man to be in and cheer in South Africa?

I guess the common man of South Africa cannot even pronounce the teams’ name properly.

Another USP of the IPL is easy viewing of famous cricketers. If you were not able to get tickets to one of the match you could always get tickets to another one in your host city and see and cheer for your favourite cricketer. Now, neither the host cities nor the favourite cricketers are in the same country.

Thus, IPL matches in South Africa would be seen, by the common man of India, as any other cricket match that happens there. Die-hard cricket fans will definitely get glued again but not the common man.

People may counter this by saying that IPL was and is a pure business proposition. Well explain me one thing. How will the IPL revenue from ticket sales increase in a country where the stadium was not fully filled even on the first day of the tournament?

IPL’s First Edition also led to the earnings for the various cricket stadiums in India which last year around were packed to the brim. What about them? Also what about the general rise in earnings of numerous food vendors, autos, buses, parking places, etc? All of these benefitted from the huge swarms of people coming to watch the matches in stadiums.

Thus, I am suggesting let the IPL be renamed to “South African Premier League (SAPL)” and for the next edition ”xPL” (‘x’ being the name of whichever country they decide to hold next year). This can be used as another selling point and for raking in more revenues.

As we are on this topic, let me also talk about the Government of India’s role in all this. What kind of a message are we sending to the outside world? That we don’t have the security forces to manage both the elections and IPL together. Or do we want to suggest that by not holding an event like this the terrorists would not strike again. There was no event going on in Mumbai when 26/11 happened.

The politicians should not try to mix the security of the common man with entertainment. Securing India is a completely different effort and should be done with or without the IPL.

Also if security was such an impossible task for the government to provide, why did not the IPL itself hire security personnel? Don’t they have huge amounts of revenues and cash reserves? 

It is difficult to comprehend as a taxpayer that the money that we gave to IPL could not be used by them to protect us only and in the process hold IPL’s Second Edition in India.