For the first time in five years Australians will have the chance to view the Indian Premier League (IPL) competition without having to negotiate tricky internet sites with a thousand pop-up ads interrupting the games.
The question is: how many people in Australia are likely to take up the offer from Fox Sports to shape up for some late nights to watch T20 cricket?
Given the IPL now has its window in the cricket calendar in the ICC Future Tours Programme, this will be an interesting experience to see if it is worth all of the trouble for anyone outside of India.
In the Australian summer the Big Bash League (BBL) has become a raging success in drawing both families to the grounds and viewers to the TV, but the BBL is in prime-time evening viewing slots in Australia, whereas the time difference between Australia and India means that most matches won’t start until 12.30am on the east coast – the domain of insomniacs and the retirees – with a slightly better deal for those in Western Australia.
The mid-afternoon highlights packages are more likely to draw in interested parties, but even then how much will Australians relate to teams with only a bare sprinkling of their own players and with a plethora of young Indian stars who will be complete strangers to the viewers?
(AFP/Sajjad Hussain/Getty Images)
The BBL allows only two imports in each team, and the rest must be local talent, which keeps the interest in the teams you choose to follow. The IPL allow four overseas players in each squad, with each team usually making full use of them along with their Indian superstars. However, those import players have changed over the years.
I remember watching the first two games ever played in the IPL. I remember Brendon McCullum scoring 158 not out in the first match and Michael Hussey scoring a century in the second match. But I couldn’t tell you what teams played or who won.
The interest early on was seeing the great players like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting playing with and against the best players in the world, and in that first tournament they were all there.
That doesn’t necessarily happen anymore. Now the ‘best’ players, the most sought-after players, are the players who have found their niche in T20 cricket and do not play any other style of the game anymore.
No matter how much you invest yourself in a T20 tournament, getting all the way to the end is a struggle. Even in the BBL the interest can be maintained through the pre-Christmas and post-Boxing Day period. The new year games keep you occupied during those festive times, but once you reach the second week of January it all starts to become a bit of a blur.
(AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
It’s easy to have games and results blend together, and the later finishes make it hard for those working every day to reach the end of each match with their eyes open. So maintaining an interest in a tournament overseas with difficult viewing times becomes even more problematic.
It’s not a world cup where you have your own team to pull for. Because of the time difference and the fact most games were on at an unwatchable time, the interest wanes pretty quickly.
Finally, how much of the T20 game can you stand to watch before realising that it isn’t cricket at all? Flat, lifeless tracks on lightning-fast grounds with ever-shrinking boundaries and rules preventing bowlers from bowling anywhere but in a batsman’s hitting zones can take a lot of the enjoyment out of the battle.
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Watching teams chase down 70 runs in the last four overs of a game may work for the uninitiated, but seeing inside edges fly away to the boundary or top-edged hooks with the bat barely halfway through the shot flying for six and then seeing the batsmen punch gloves as if it was great cricket on their part is hard to watch.
I am a cricket tragic, and I will give it a go again. I will resist throwing things at the TV when Virat Kohli raises his arms in mock triumph, or when Chris Gayle or Dwayne Bravo carry on as if they are the world’s greatest cricketer. I will hope to see D’Arcy Short score lots of runs and Rashid Khan continue to confuse all batsmen.
Hopefully the good will outweigh the boring and my April and May will be filled with cricket news of the pleasing kind.
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