After months of anticipation, the Indian Premier League kicked off today with a meek surrender by the Bangalore Royal Challengers, whose batting was neither royal, nor seemed like posing any challenge to the others teams in the league. Kolkata, in contrast, turned out to be awesome (though I am not impressed by their team name).
It would be interesting to see how the IPL impacts the future of cricket. One possible scenario is that cricket might be played more along club lines, like football. But I think it is currently more possible than probable. Regional cricket (like county cricket in England and state tournaments in India and Australia) face a greater threat due to IPL’s emergence. If the organizers were to expand the IPL from its current, compressed two-month schedule, regional cricket is sure to take a huge hit.
Interestingly though, Michael Vaughn’s recent comments made some sense in this regard. When asked if the IPL could threaten county cricket in England, Vaughn pointed out that each country could have its own league, and then the top clubs from each country could face off against each other in a super league, much like the UEFA Champions League in football.
I have some doubts if this would indeed turn out to be the case. India’s financial clout in cricket could make it extremely difficult for similar leagues in other countries to thrive.
Anyway, Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League have definitely made the “business” of cricket more dynamic, and a space to watch out for. It is, as many have already said, the best way to take the game to a more global audience.
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Srinivas on 
brd on 
April 19th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Adding to the substance of making cricket more global, the Twenty20 variant will make the game more physical and less of classical elements.
Concentrated cricket will be the saleable cricket. Test ones will become more like the FA Cup scenario. They play for the sake of history, purists watches it because they have watched it once.
India if doesn’t take proper steps in that direction, then the countries of Pan America and Asia Pacific, who are all expected to be in the cricket circus in the next 10 years down the line shall start making an impact. They are basically more agile and physically oriented when playing.
Just, think of Hockey. Once, it became more physical and a little bit athletic, Indians and Pakistanis started losing out in the international arena.
Korean and Japanese fellows who are short, run very hard, make the game suddenly fast and unsettle the opposition. No big stick work or ball possession or any thing of skill stuff. They just control the game and win it in moments.
You can imagine the same in cricket in Third man boundary fielding. How fast a guy needs to run to cover the ground ?? How little margin of error he will have at his disposal ?? The ball pick and throw back.
And the issue of players’ longevity in cricket ? How much will be the span of cricketing years ? Now, the average first class span would be 12-15 years. Is that possible in the Twenty20 Power cricket ?
Hope, India adepts to Power Cricket sooner like SA and Aussies. That 431 super ODI matches were all the outcome of power cricket that they have been playing in their respective local circuits.
We have to really follow this evolution of cricket closely or else we will get to know these matters once we read Ram Guha’s commentary some 15 years later.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Vijay,
Thanks for that string of comments on the suicide post
Your last comment’s answer is a post by itself, and it is getting ready. I had no other way of intimating you, so I am taking the liberty of posting this info here!
May 24th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
cricket is certainly going through some very radical changes at the moment, i hope they are for the better.