IPL : Effects on Fan Base

As an Indian, Cricket has always held the centre stage of sports arena in the country. People swarm the stadiums to catch a glimpse of their stars. Some of them watch it on their TV sets in their cozy homes. And the not so fortunate ones listen to the commentary on radio. Yes I am talking about the India where each and every ball used to be talked about and every match used to be sliced and diced into pieces so small that the discussions used to take more time than the actual cricket match.

But over years the cricketing scenario has changed – coming of T-20 being the biggest change. T-20 has been nothing but pure entertainment. 40 overs of cricket heavily sided to the batsman. More than technique it’s the ability to score quick runs that matter. For bowlers it’s keeping the batsman quiet rather than taking wickets. And with IPL bringing in so much money to the cricketers this is a format which cannot be ignored.

Coming to my point here, take the last 2 months. Almost every single day we are witnessing some cricket match or the other which involves international players. Initially it was the world cup and now IPL. With almost no time between the 2 tournaments cricket is losing out on 2 things:

1. Viewers getting bored – India has many cricket crazy fans. But majority of the people are fans who wouldn’t enjoy cricket every single day. The timing of IPL and world cup this year has brought things so close that there is no time to enjoy the feeling of victory of your team because by then your team’s next match would have started. There is no time to spend over second thoughts about any match -except for the pre match and post match analysis unless you don’t mind missing the next game. For many, IPL matches have become scoreboards they read every day morning over their cup of coffee. For many Indians this would be a first time experience. You wake up the next day tensed about today’s match rather than yesterday’s victory. Beyond a stage you lose the interest you once savored.

In simple words last 2 months has seen too much cricket.

Including Social Network he has acted in about 25 movies

2. Short Term Memory – For many Paul Valthaty would be a name which should be considered by selectors though his resume can boast of only a 120* and 75 and 4/29. T-20 gives the players the ability to create high impact in minimum time. But on the flip side – Swapnil Asnodkar was a name very popular in the initial edition of IPL. Any clue why he is not playing now? Naman Ojha was slated to play for Indian team. Luckily he is still playing in IPL. We could take this discussion to importance of technique and hard work v/s skill but that’s something we have always heard.

In simple words T-20 stars are like movie stars. You do have personal favorites but one good movie will take a new name to the league. (Jesse Eisenberg is a good example)

The fundamental point I want to make here is that the changing face of cricket has also changed the fan base. Personally I am one of them who loves Test cricket and LOI where you get time to digest the match (meaning make a detailed study, look up the stats and crib about the players). IPL wants me to not only digest but flush out the match out of my system that too in double quick time. I will surely try to do that; so will other fans like me but the enjoyment factor will be surely less.