IPL brought the whole nation to frenzy if not most cricket loving nations. It had bolstered the TV channels TRP ratings, invented a new channel for marketing firms, created a heavenly avenue for world cricketers including Indian cricketers to earn gold playing for just a few matches and more importantly great entertainment format for the mad cricket loving nation challenging the great Indian movies n soaps….
WHY DID IPL HAPPEN….
The Indian cricket team and the BCCI were reeling under the pressure from immense public criticism and also the Parliament for the poorest of poor display of cricket by the Indian team in the Caribbean World Cup 2007. Cricket frenzy fans mobbed and pelted stones at Dhoni’s house, Dravid’s house and Zaheer’s food restaurant in Pune. There was hue and cry about the Indian performance and there was every reason for a normal average Indian cricket fan to be terribly upset and imagine the trauma a diehard cricket had gone through. It lead to a discussion in the Parliament by our honorable parliamentarians (atleast there were no walkouts this time around)….scene cut change….
The original Indian television Czar Subhash Chandra of Zee TV had a stunning idea and proposed Indian Cricket League with exorbitant prize money for the winners. ICL as told by Subhash Chandra was born out of love for cricket and for betterment of the sport in the Indian society. But the whole world knows the open secret that ICL was born because ZEE Sports could not win any bid for cricket matches telecast in India and abroad and ZEE Sports would have had nothing to do cricket telecast in this country where cricket is a religion. The all time greatest Indian all rounder Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev didn’t lose an opportunity to support the project as he always been a rebel against BCCI during and after his playing days. Huge media hype supported the ICL, cricketers around the world gave it a thought, every average Indian cricket fan was inquisitive to know about the league, more than anyone the average Indian domestic player was happy not only to see a platform for the world to take notice of their talent but also the money involved in it as it would forever secure their life. Cricketing legends Brain Lara, Shane Warne, Inzamam Ul Haq, Chris Cairns and other good current players like Mohammed Yousuf embraced the league format even though Warne and Yousuf backtracked later. All this while BCCI was crying foul calling and branding ICL as a rebel league and took no time in not only banning the league but also muscling the ICC to do the same…..scene cut change….
ICC 20-20 World Cup in South Africa, a no expectation young team without the SRS (Sachin, Rahul, Saurav) under the new captaincy of Dhoni represented India in the world cup after a great win in the Test series in England and also a spirited performance in the one day matches where the seniors played a very big role. Every one believed for sure that the team would stand no chance in the new 20-20 format as team never played the format nor the BCCI was encouraging of the format and initially BCCI didn’t want send an Indian contingent for the event. Everybody knows history created by the Indian team winning the 20-20 World Cup emphatically and in the process destroying the original 20-20 inventors England, taming the South Africans in their own den, demolishing the mighty Aussies on their way to the finals and culminating by beating their arch rivals Pakistan twice once in the league stage and again in the finals. The nation went frenzy again; the TRP ratings for the matches hit the zenith for Star Sports and it made gold. The BCCI didn’t lose the ICC given opportunity and acted promptly by given the team a heroes welcome, with State governments fighting each other to share the glory by announcing rewards for the players belonging to their state and then the icing on the cake by announcing Indian Premiere League (IPL)….scene cut change….
IPL was born, business tycoons, liquor kingfishers, bollywood badshahs, tinsel town beauties, media barons everyone wanted their share of piece and associations with the IPL. Teams were bid for never heard prices peaking better than the Mt Everest. Bidding for players took place for astounding numbers with our Indian Captain taking the most of the glory. The critics wrote off the league as they believed cricket lovers would never equate these matches between cities to any international match and the critics had a reason with the very average success of the ICL even though ICL had only retired and mostly unknown players. But, IPL didn’t relent, the branding of each city team started taking off, the media extensively covered anything and everything associated with IPL, ads were out bringing irresistible curiosity among the cricket fans….scene cut change….
IPL CREATED HISTORY
The day had come, the format and the league was welcomed by every Indian cricket lover with both hands. Sony Max minted money selling their ads spots hotter than the hottest cakes. IPL brought new cricket lovers to embrace (mostly the fairer sex) cricket like never before, most of the husbands loved to see their wives give up their regular saas bahu serial soaps for the IPL. Bollywood and Indian cinema as a whole witnessed steep drop in their collections during the SUMMER which is supposed to be their most fruitful season of the whole year, movie releases were postponed to after the IPL finals.
Cricket played in IPL was of the highest order, even though not all teams played to their potential. It threw new challenges for players and brought the best out of the most unsought or unsung players and sprouted new heroes during the course of the league. The league revived many cricketing careers. Most of all, IPL matches kept the whole nation occupied by creating great cricketing rivalry between traditional Indian cities and made everyone happy.
The world witnessed and enjoyed the IPL extravaganza. IPL success helps ICC to take and market the sport in this format to other sporting nations thereby increasing the sport's presence world over.
Also, IPL helped BCCI to exercise its power and control over CRICKET completely world over even though not sabotaging the ICC directly....the English and the Aussies are fuming over the power generated by BCCI through IPL....
All said n done....IPL was the biggest bonanza for everyone...
In pure BOX OFFICE terms….we can only name this IPL as ALL TIME BIGGEST INDIAN BLOCKBUSTER….
