The first IPL ended more than a week ago yet the fever doesn’t seem to have ended. People are still talking about it. Husbands are still keen on taking the remote from their wives, who are catching up with their soaps after a month-long IPL-inflicted sabbatical, to watch re-runs of the matches.

Every tea table discussion still rings with a distinct flavour of IPL and it doesn’t seem to stop for now. Such is the impact of this cricket tournament.

Is IPL the future of cricket? Certainly, and why not. In an age of quick thinking, promptness of action, swift communication and pace-packed travel why should cricket, traditionally slow, be left as the tortoise among a host of hares. Change is invaluable and needs to be taken stock of, otherwise we script our own decline.

'It is the future because it has transformed a sport previously termed as slow and boring into something fast and thrilling'


With the success of the Twenty20 World Cup, the establishment of the IPL was a transition which was inevitable. Even football has profited from the various leagues that have been played between the clubs over decades and are partly responsible for the growth and popularity of the sport. Cricket is just cashing in on this experience.

IPL is slated to grow in its next edition in every parameter. Be it audience reach, inclusion of new players (English cricketers are hoping to be part of the league), money, endorsement, possibly inclusion of new teams and more excitement and, might I add, a few more cheerleaders. This is an avenue for new talents and it spoils the selectors for choice. I am not talking only of Indian selectors but also of the other cricketing associations represented in the league.

IPL did start as a competitor to the ICL but it has not realised that its goal is not to counter the rebel league but to establish cricket as an exciting game which is not just fit for the 'gentlemen' but also for the masses. The IPL brought a new bunch of admirers into its fold – women, who have long suffered the wrath of not understanding the game enough. This time though, they were attracted to the glitzy affair that cricket has become.

I do not know if IPL was shown in foreign countries but in India its impact has been enough for future editions to be forecast in a knee-deep flood of profit in every imaginable way possible. It is the future of cricket because it has brought the game into a new light – full of glamour and the trappings of star power which until now was limited to football.

it is the future because it has transformed a sport previously termed as slow and boring into something fast and thrilling. It is the future because it has made the BCCI into a money-minting machine. It is the future because the league has given Indians new talents to cheer and has compelled the Indian selectors to envisage a new Indian team. And finally it is the future because IPL made the sport bigger than the players in every way possible.

The only worry is that its hectic schedule might consistently injure players and that its aggressive promotion might just take the game away from its ODI and Test format. These are the loopholes that need to be taken care of. However, the Twenty20 game and the IPL are here to stay and entertain like never before.