#2 Availability of top international stars of the game
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One of the early challenges for the organisers of the IPL was to find a window in the international calendar for the T20 league. For the tournament to catch the eyeballs, it would require the cricket loving public’s favourite entertainers available on the ground in its entirety or for the most part. This would require the Indian players, first and foremost, and those of other countries to have no international commitments for a period of two months.
Over the years, the IPL has been able to carve a window of its own, in between a tightly packed international calendar. This ensured the availability of players from across the world, something that T20 leagues like the Big Bash, Caribbean Premier League, Natwest T20 Blast, Bangladesh Premier League or the Pakistan Super League don’t enjoy.
Though these leagues do feature overseas players, the top stars of the game have mostly stayed away from these tournaments that clash with their international commitments and those that have gone on to play are in the fag end of their career or out-of-national reckoning. In fact, most of the Australian and England players themselves do not appear in all of the games in the Big Bash and T20 Blast, respectively.
In contrast, all Indian stars play the entirety of the IPL and all top-flight international stars (with the notable exception of England and Pakistani cricketers) participate in the tournament to rub shoulders with and against the best of their contemporaries.
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