Whether you like it or not, the ‘in your face’ IPL is here to stay.

It surely will not obliterate the classical five-day format; if anything, it will make people yearn for Tests even more.

But the fact remains that of all the various Twenty20 tournaments around the world, none has captured the imagination of cricket lovers the way IPL has.

'Some innovative packaging, a dash of Bollywood and some brilliant cricketers – and the BCCI has a perfect recipe for success'


Fantasy teams which were only in the minds of fans are now an actual reality in the IPL; Sachin Tendulkar opening with Sanath Jayasuriya. Shoaib Akhtar, Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the same team, while Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi and Herschelle get stuck into opposition bowlers.

And unlike the rebel ICL (Indian Cricket League) with its ‘has beens’, IPL has only three retired cricketers who still have what it takes to be the best – Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

Some innovative packaging, a dash of Bollywood and most importantly, some brilliant cricketers from all over the world on the same platform – and the BCCI has a perfect recipe for success.

Do people outside India really care about the IPL? Well, the IPL is still the ‘Indian’ Premier League. It is played in India and the target audience too is viewers in India, evident from the whopping  $1bn paid by a television channel for the rights to broadcast the IPL to the subcontinent.

The IPL also features only Indian franchise owners and barring one, all teams are led by Indian players as well. The rules permit only a maximum of four foreign players in the playing XI which must also include a minimum number of local players and at least one from the Indian Under-19 team as well.

Essentially then, this is a glamorised Indian domestic Twenty20 tournament with players from abroad added to give it an international flavour.

Given the runaway success of  IPL, the BCCI has accomplished its mission of presenting a popular, revenue-generating Twenty20 tournament and for me, the tables have turned. So does the BCCI give a toss if the international cricketing fraternity isn’t interested in the IPL?

How many cricket fans outside Australia know about the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash – Australia’s domestic tourney? How many outside of England bother to follow the Twenty20 Cup? The fact that a country’s domestic cricket tournament doesn’t get noticed internationally is hardly reason enough to question the success of the tournament - simply because getting attention from abroad was never one of its motives.

That aside, it would be naïve to say that the IPL hasn’t caused a stir abroad. American billionaire Allen Sanford, impressed with the IPL, has already approached the ECB with a proposal to have a tournament on the lines of the franchisee system of the IPL.

The fact that the opening ceremony of the IPL in Bangalore was attended by the entire ICC top brass further shows how well the BCCI has managed to project the IPL internationally. The superlative player fees offered have lured international players from every Test-playing nation and with ICC Elite panel umpires officiating, something never seen in domestic tournaments abroad, the IPL’s credibility is further strengthened.

All in all, the IPL has provided a lot of entertainment, drama, a few friendly slaps (and an unfriendly one too) and some mind-blowing cricket.

And it not only has built an enormous amount of hype around it but undoubtedly lived up to it as well.