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Call me a fuddy-duddy but IPL leaves me cold. And this is despite my favourites, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, and Virender Sehwag, among others playing.
First the good points of IPL: you see the best players from yesterday, today and tomorrow in action.
Old ‘foes’ like Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds play side by side for the same team, Mumbai Indians, their misunderstandings probably forgotten.
Youngsters have a chance to play with, and against, legends. Indian rookies have learnt an enormous amount from overseas legends such as Warney, Gilly, Watto, Gayle, Lee, Tait, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, and Vettori.
The record 206 run stand between Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh for King’s XI Punjab on Tuesday night brightened up Australian cricketers’ listless performance in IPL 2011 so far.
Now the minuses:
Who cares as to who wins?
Those ten sides are neither national nor State teams. They are franchises made up of auctioned cricketers.
Bill O’Reilly described Packer cricket in late 1970s as a circus with clowns (players wearing colour clothing). But at least they were playing for their countries. I shudder to think how he would have described the IPL cricketers!
Talented IPL players provide entertainment galore.
And crowds lap it up. But TV ratings are falling this year in India, with the average rating for the first 37 games down 25% from the previous year.
But it is not all bad news for IPL this year, as the cumulative number of people who have watched live the tournament this season has already surpassed last season’s total.
As far as I know, pay TV is not showing IPL-2011 in Australia. No one Down Under seems to care two hoots for this franchise razzmatazz.
This is despite a strong representation of Australians players.
As many as 32 Australians (an average of 3.2 Australians per franchise) have participated in IPL-2011, with two as captains – Warne leading Rajasthan Royals and Gilchrist, King’s XI Punjab.
Six Australians are coaches of different franchises: Geoff Lawson, Geoff Marsh, Michael Bevan, Darren Lehman, Dav Whatmore and Greg Shipperd.
But with the exceptions of Shaun Marsh, Adam Gilchrist and Brad Hodge, the performances of the Australians have been disappointing.
In batting, only three out of top 15 run-getters are Australians: Shaun Marsh on the top with 491 runs, Mike Hussey at no. 7 and Gilchrist at no. 14. Six have scored centuries; one of them is an Australian (Gilchrist 106).
On Tuesday, Gilchrist (106 with eight fours and nine sixes) and Marsh (79 not out with seven fours and five sixes) added 206 runs for the second wicket. This is the highest partnership in the four years of IPL for any wicket and the only partnership of over 200 runs.
In bowling, only two out of the 25 top wicket-takers are Australians: Doug Bollinger at no.7 and Shane Warne at no. 15. Four have taken 5 wickets in an innings, not one Aussie among them.
The saving grace is Brad Hodge who heads the bowling average with 8.83 in 13 matches.
In wicket-keeping, Gilchrist is the third on the list, having made 12 dismissals (9 caught and 3 stumped in 13 matches) after Kumar Sangakkara (17+2 in 13 matches) and Robin Uthappa (11+3 in 12).
Gilchrist’s King’s XI Punjab is joint fourth out of 10 teams and Warne’s Rajasthan Royals seventh.
So Marsh, Gilchrist and Hodge apart, Australians have a disappointing record so far.
As if this was not bad enough, Rajasthan Royals decided to take disciplinary action against its captain Warne last Saturday after an internal probe found the legendary Australian guilty of publicly insulting Sanjay Dixit, the secretary of his franchise.
“The player (Warne) has accepted the action that we have taken and apologised for any distress caused,” Rajasthan Royals’ CEO Sean Morris said.
“We have told all our players that we will not tolerate colourful language towards anyone and in particular not a senior officer,” Morris added.
The plot thickens.
But why this hoo-hah? Does IPL really matter?
It’s a money-making gimmick, irrelevant and not good for cricket. If the standard of play is not outstanding, ‘bring on the controversies’ is the mantra. It sells.
Now the IPL epidemic will soon become a pandemic with Sri Lanka starting their SLPL, England perhaps their EPL, and Australia their international Big Bash.
The ball is in your court, Roarers.