Starting with a big bang

Every sporting event has its seminal moment, that occasion when it goes from being just another competition to being an institution. For the European Cup, it was the night Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas inspired Real Madrid to a 7-3 triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park. For the Superbowl, it was Joe Namath conjuring up victory for the unheralded New York Jets over the might of the Baltimore Colts. Whisper it quietly, but the Indian Premier League's defining moment may well have come in its very first game. If the first five hours in Bangalore were any indicator, the venture into club culture will be a resounding success.

The one big disadvantage of being a journalist is having to sit through interminable and poorly planned opening ceremonies. But all of us who went in expecting a similar shambles on Saturday were pleasantly surprised by the entertainment on offer. By the time the first ball was bowled, even hardened cynics were admitting that the opening gambit had been a stunning one.

Kingfisher, the beer which is at the heart of VIjay Mallya's UB Group, is advertised as The King of Good Times. And the man who bought the Bangalore franchise for the not inconsiderable sum of $111.6 million certainly knows a thing or two about showing people a good time.

The cheerleaders certainly got the crowd going, as did the live band, and the acrobats were little short of sensational. But it was the laser show and the fireworks that really had most of us gawking, with the night sky lit up so bright you half-thought they were making another video for Oasis' Champagne Supernova.

Slick organisation and gimmickry can only take you so far though. This child of hype and bombast needed some substance to make it credible, and it got that from the scimatar-like bat of Brendon McCullum.

Some of thought we'd never see anything quite like Adam Gilchrist's assault on the Sri Lankan bowlers, but this perhaps surpassed that. To make 158 off just 73 balls is mind-boggling at any level of first-class cricket. To do so on a pitch where the other batsmen from both sides tallied just 110 was superlative.

Of course there were moments of luck, but you'll seldom see the ball struck so cleanly. An attack of Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Jacques Kallis and Ashley Noffke certainly wasn't to be sneezed at, but McCullum treated them all with equal contempt. When Red Chillies, who own the Kolkata franchise, do their sums at the end of the season, the $700,000 next to McCullum's name might have an asterisk next to it to denote the biggest bargain.

The home side, the Royal Challengers, were wretched in response, but most teams would be while chasing 223. Ishant Sharma set the tone with a super first ball to Rahul Dravid, and the rest fell like pins at the end of a bowling alley. With Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dale Steyn expected to join the side soon, Dravid's side are unlikely to be quite as poor again.

At the end of it all, I got a message from my mother. "The IPL, I feel, is here to stay," she said. "The short version of the game can be quite interesting and people like your father get time to watch and enjoy it. When you think of its future, dont be too harsh in your comments."

Touché. The thousands inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium and millions watching on TV worldwide appear to have savoured the spectacle. And who are we to argue with that?

Comments

[Venkat Reddy]

I think the future of cricket was in display that night at banaglore(excuse the cliche).I just hope one day cricket is finished.One day cricket has been painful to watch over the past 10 years(partly due to australian excellence,partly due to mediocrity in other sides and placid tracks that give no hope for the bowlers).If test cricket needs to survive it needs to be a collectors edition.Right now there are about 5 sides too many playing test cricket.Once test cricket just pits the best against the best it would coexist peacefully with the 20-20 stuff.

[Ramji]

Well said. I wish to recount a story. My late father (he passed away on 29th February 2008) never watched cricket in his life and he caught on the T20 format. He watched all the matches of the T20 World Cup in Sept 2007. He was so taken in by Gambhir's show that when we were watching Test matches in Austraila, the old man used to insist that Gambhir should have gone to Australia. I tried explaning to him about the difference in the formats - he wouldnot listen! I am sure there are several people like him!

[SanjayN]

Barath, if you were to read the blogs on Guardian etc, posted by mainly England fans, you'd think that the recent NZ-Eng Test series was a fantastic affair. Then again, those same pundits declared India's previous Test tour to Oz (drawn 1-1) as a lucky affair given Oz were missing McGrath & Warne. The recent tour only merits a mention for the off-field issues.

It's clear the biggest IPL cynics are from England. However, I'm not convinced they would be so opposed if the IPL was an Australian or even a West Indian affair. Hardly a murmur on ECB's salivating gestures towards Stanford. Something smells.

These cynics are worked up by a 6 week tournament that takes place mainly in April when most of the English county games are wiped out due to inclement weather.

What really bothers me is the fact that no-one wishes to discuss the real scandal surrounding county cricket: The Kolpak abuses. This year counties are only allowed one overseas players and this has led to the ridiculous sight of players such as the West Indians W. Hinds and J. Lawson signed up as locals via the Kolpak ruling!! Warwks have signed Ant Botha as their spinner who according to his cricinfo profile "recently discovered his Mother was English". So much for county cricket being the breeding ground for English Test Cricket. A quick look at every county team shows that almost half the players are ineligible for England, many of whom are "English" thanks to their Irish goldfish.

You won't catch Gideon Haigh discussing this particular scandal. Mr. Haigh does write well but sadly he wears the baggy "Anti_India" cap far too often. Along with Atherton and Scyld Berry, this trio loves to put down Indian cricket.

Along with the cynics, I too have misgivings about the IPL, particularly the men behind the league. Hopefully the gains will outweigh the negatives, but we'll have to wait a couple of seasons, and atleast the end of this one, to determine its success.

[Shaswata Panja]

Sad but true All the naysayers of happen to be either whities hailing from England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa or brownie Anglophones... I am a big cricket lover and I whole heartedly support IPL and by my reckoning the crowds all over India too are getting behind this league !! In the 5 matches over the weekend, only one was not a sell-out and that's the Mohali game..But even there ,a crowd of around 20,000 was in attendance...Delhi game was a sell out at 40,000...Mumbai game was also a sell-out at 45,000 ....Same goes for the Eden Gardens at Kolkata and Bangalore where crowds of 80,000 and 55,000 were in attendance respectively...I think those are encouraging enough pointers that India is lapping up the IPL intently...I have personally delved into and researched the workings of several professional leagues and it is critical for cricket that they have a full blown glitzy and glamourous professional league of their own at a time when India and China are taking off economically in a big way...NFL has readied up a war chest of $250 million to infect the Chinese with American football fever...NBA is already enjoying a big presence in China..FIFA and the footballing English Premier League are eyeing India with salivating licks like a pack of leery wolves...MLB is conducting talent searches in India and giving away $100,000 each to not so deserving candidates...Cricket has to survive with these realities!!! So what is wrong when a few administrators with foresight come along and exploit the game's most concise format to construct a full fledged league? People will eventually connect with their city teams...You know why? Because of the huge linguistical and sometimes cultural difference that is prevalent between various parts of India...If a puny little mono culture country like England can harbour an atmosphere to cultivate regional football rivalries then how cannot India? Case to the point...Bangla rock bands getting people sway to their tunes at the Eden Gardens while people in Mohali were jiggling to the tunes of Bhangra pop...Then at some point the rivalry between Bollywood and the Southern India film industry will also come into play in IPL..Scions of the Tamil Industry ( a not so Shabby film Industry with the capabilty of producing $20 million dollar blockbusters and $12 million animation flicks) are getting behind the Chennai Superkings while the internationally recognized stars of Bollywood are getting behind their own North and East Indian teams...Trust me , there is enough diversity in India to make the regional rivalries work over a period of time..And India needs an elaborate, extensive and extended cricket culture and infrastructure so that cricket is indelibly imprinted on the minds of Indians...If withiin a space of two years the Indian cricket team fails to do well at the World Cup and the Indian football team manages to qualify for the football world cup a whole lot of support and money would be lost to soccer which would in turn trigger off the downfall of cricket in the sub-continent..We need to have a cricket culture in India that is akin to Football culture in England...Even though the England soccer team failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 the English premier league would still be pulling in around a billion pounds this year in terms of revenue and enjoy a hegemony over other more honest sports like Rugby union, Rugby league or Cricket...And for that matter there have been quite a few instances when newly formed professional leagues have been immensely succesful...Cae to the point---The J League football of Japan...Athough the long protracted Japanese recession has taken the wind out of its sails...But the J League in Japan still threatens to upstage NPB baseball as that country's premier sporting league...If ECB had come up with this IPL idea we would have been looking at a stronger Cricket brand which would have been pulling in 60 percent of the footballing Premier league's revenue rather than the 7 percent it does now....There have been many other follies committed by ECB...Even though old worldly architecture of ECB's stadiums are good for heritage and some point of time people will get bored of it ...It's time ECB constructed or took over the maintenance and administration of high capacity modern looking stadiums like in Australia...Twenty 20 in a modern reconstructed MCG under a full house looks great...It even surprasses the look and feel of Major League Baseball or NFL...ECB had a chance to takeover the Commonwealth games stadium of Manchester but sadly they didnot...Now they would go on and spend 200 million pounds to modernize Lords and bump up the capacity to a grand total of 38,000 over 10 years...Wouldn't that money have been spent if a fresh green field retractable roof stadium had been constructed just outside of London? Even a relatively less well off than cricket code like rugby has its huge retractable roof stadium in Cardiff, Wales...Gentlemen ,modern sport is an arena of merciless business and sooner we stop wallowing in nostalgia the better off we are...English Premier League, Soccer in general, American leagues such as NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL (Well, less so) are giant Microsoft/Intel like monopolies..Compared to them Rugby union, rugby league outside Aus and even Cricket are minnows...And I would like Cricket to be rather like Apple (cute giant little company that everybody likes
and makes serious money) facing up to these sporting Microsofts and Intels rather than an amateur financially irrevelant but still brilliant Linux distribution---With this closing statement I rest my case!! Ladies and gentlemen---Your decision is eagerly awaited!!

[Homer]

$59 for the entire complement of games :).. Apologies if I mis typed ...

[Dileep]

Wait a second...they're charging you $59 to watch one game??
As for giving T20 a shot, I'll be doing 20 games, including the semis and final. And without being coerced into it. I'd call that giving it a chance!

[Barath]

Good points, Dileep! First off, I am a great believer in the lessons taught by history. If test cricket survived one day games, it will also survive T20. Secondly, fear can only arise when one format can compensate the other. In this case, that is impossible. Also, the standard of test cricket has been on the decline and T20 can be a positive boon to increase competition, albeit of a different kind. Watching the recent Eng-NZ series was suicide (which I indulged in, only because it was Fleming's last series). The first test's result was apparent on the first day evening. It is no wonder that India and Australia were able to provide the best test series in recent years, though both are heavily involved in the IPL. The last ashes was a joke. The fact remains that though it is only a 'hit and run' game as many portray, only the good will survive. And that helps to identify talent.

Secondly, the money. No, it is not the be all and end all of things. This has been proved even in baseball after that wonderful book, 'Moneyball' came to market, where it was outlined why and how the Oakland Athletics win more games than the other high paid teams, like the jets. Hopefully, the franchises will realize this sooner rather than later and all this crazy money bargaining will go away.

Thirdly, there is a section of the English media arguing for county cricket. This clearly is hypocritical, as seen by the number of people who go see them matches! (The last point is irrelevant to your arguments, though!)

So, everything said, there is a good chance that T20 might actually help cricket in general. Let's give it a shot, shall we?

[Homer]

did not watch the game Dileep ( 59$ is a tad too steep for my pocket for the slam bang version of the game), just read the ball by ball on Cricinfo, on and off.

Btw, just how good is Abhishek Nayar? That the kid has heart was never in doubt ( his 97 and 86 were scored when Mumbai was in serious strife in his debut season) and his batting and fielding is not too bad ( based on what I read today). If the kid can get an extra yard of pace, he should be a shoo in for the India ODI- Twenty20 side.

Pathan, Kumar and Nayar as the all rounders - not too shabby eh?

Cheers

[Ravi]

Srini,
If you hate it that badly, why did you waste your 60 bucks? It's not as if you didn't know what you were getting into. Why blame SRK and Preity Zinta and Cheeka for your self-inflicted pain?

[Dileep]

I think you're mixing up two different issues, Barath. The games are fantastic entertainment for those that watch them, especially matches like the one in Bombay today where even the bowlers get a chance to shine.
I enjoy beach football and seven rugby immensely, but I'd hate to see them supplant the real thing. That's my fear with IPL, that it will force players from certain countries to turn their backs on proper cricket just for six weeks of IPL. It's really skewed the game's economy, and not in a good way.
From the moment I watched my first T20 game at the Wanderers in 2006, I've been a fan of the format. Unless you're a huge cynic, the games can be great fun to watch. I'd just love to see more pitches with a bit of life in them. You get some cracking games then. But just because I'm a happy spectator doesn't mean I can't worry about the future of the sport.
Comparisons to the EPL, the Champions League and Major League Baseball are frankly a joke. Those events represent the pinnacle of those sports and are the ultimate test of a player's skills. No cricketer is going to say that T20 is the ultimate test of his skills. It's like sevens rugby, a lot of fun to watch, but with none of the complexities of the 15-a-side game. Rugby and football haven't let the main event be diluted by the catchy versions, and neither should cricket.

[Barath]

eh, srini, you did start of reasonably well. but i kinda lost the plot after srikant...what exactly do you have against the man, his goatie (not false, as you say...he has had that for years now) and harmless sunglasses)...of all the people, he is the one most likely to be there, methinks...

[Barath]

Hold on for a sec! I thought you were so against the idea of IPL T20, Dileep! I did have a chance to read a couple of your articles and blogs (Guardian and some australian blog)....u really seemed to think this is such a farce and the end of test cricket! Am I to understand that your opinions have changed in a day? (No, it is not just a case of covering the tournament, as your response to Homer proves!)

[Dileep]

Sour grapes, Homer? Laugh.
Zaheer and Akhil were very good with the ball today, and Dravid, Kohli and Kallis all played a part before Boucher smashed that awesome six. With Steyn in, Bangalore will be a decent side. Not top-two material, but decent outside bets for a semi-final slot.

[Homer]

Well, even ordinary teams get lucky at times.. Well played the Challengers, but wait for us to return the favor at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Cheers,

A chauvinistic Mumbaikar!

[Dileep]

Well, the website deal is already a scandal. You bar dedicated cricket websites from covering the games, and give it instead to some third-rate amateurs. Had the rights been given to a BBC or a Sportal, it might have been understandable, but this is an absolute scandal, and I'd like to know what went on behind the scenes. It's interesting to see though that despite that, Cricinfo's coverage wipes the floor with the "official" site.

[The Pav]

Dileep,

On the ABC Sunday TV show they have a sporting segment & naturally the IPL came up.

Gideon Haigh, a cricket writer for whom I have the highest regard, came up with an interesting observation.

He said that there was so many egos involved with the IPL that it would not be allowed to fail but that this would also lead to the biggest financial scandal(It would make Cronje seem like nothing) cricket has ever seen within three years.

Given your more intimate knowledge do you think he may be right?

[The Pav]

Dear Virenmk,

I watched game 2 at the Punjuba CA ground and if you think that the ground was packed then you've been smoking something illegal.

[Shawn]

Pls visit http://www.indianpremiercricketleague.com/ This site is good, all details and updated too. Its is far far better than official site.

[lalit]

IPL is best that would have happened to world cricket. The cynics will always be cynics, but it is very exciting to watch some of best names in the cricket. And Cricketers are getting richer in the process. The life time of a cricketer is so less of 10 years or so of international career and it is for them to cash in whatever talent they have with money. Else, they will end up broke after the career and some adminstrators will make money.

[Amith]

The IPL has every reason to succeed - after all, the world over all sports games last for 1-3 hours and that is about all people have time for. Cricket has been the exception to that rule - T20 addresses that issue. Combine the shortened action-packed format of the game with glitz, glamour and money and it will turn out like American baseball or the English Premier League.

I think this format will develop further as team owners will invest even more in building their teams in the future thorough professional coaches, clinics, training etc. Think about this - today we have Buchanan, Moody, Crowe etc. all involved in DOMESTIC cricket - would any of the state cricket associations hire coaches and professionals of that calibre? The much-criticized commercialization of the game will PAY FOR ALL THIS.

Those who are anguished by the prospect of this game wiping out test cricket, would do well to remember that if 5-day test cricket can be wiped out by 3-hour games, then its demise is imminent in any scenario, with or without T20/IPL. Upper middle class kids in urban India are anyway gravitating towards watching soccer (the English Premier League specifically) and will stop watching cricket all together unless IPL-style extragavaganzas are created.

My prediction - One-day cricket, will get wiped out by T20 and not test cricket. After all, T20 offers the same qualities (action, quicker results, colored clothing, carnival atmosphere) that made ODI cricket popular, and Test cricket stands in contrast to both these formats. The masses will not find ODIs very interesting after T20, but purists and game-lovers will still love test cricket.

[virenMK]

I don't really know why ECB is still sitting on the fence! Hope they are not waiting for IPL experiment to miserably fail!

I have watched all three matches so far and the stadium are jam packed. People know what they really want to see! You can't stop them!

Tomorrows match at Eden garden-Kolkata will be entertaining Hydrabad at home, in front of 100000 or so fans! What does this suggest!

There is saying in business world if ECB is not aware!
That 'Customer is King!' is equally valid in Twenty20 cricket!

[srini]

The whole IPL thing is a joke. I bought Setanta just to watch it and am bored already after watching one innings. If the greed of the Indian board and the ignorance of the India people want to bring down the sport to a baseball style hit-out, with cheerleaders and sheltered perverts staring at them, then so be it. If you think 13 sixes and a hundred within twenty overs is all cricket is about then you really don't understand the beauty of the game. It's just a boring format that looks set to drag on and on.

The only winners are the Aussies who are paid over the odds and if you look at their faces they are just happy to take the money and run. Badrinath, Raina et al. will learn nothing from facing Brett Lee for a total of 5 balls and attempting to slog each one.

Give me a nail biting dark fourth day evening at Headingley any day. That is what real cricket is about and that is what real character is about. I don't want to see Preity Zinta pretending to act interested when the camera is facing her, she frankly looks like a bimbo. I don't want to see Kris Srikanth embarrassing himself with a fake goatie and sunglasses. Sometimes the wealth comes to people before maturity and sometimes the neuvo-rich lose track of where they came from. Some humility would not go a miss from the likes of Srikanth and all those involved in this arrogant mess. Srikanth need only think back to the early 80's when he used to rock up to practice on a cycle with rubber slippers on. We may have come far but sometimes we need to look back at where we came from and act with decorum.

[SanjayN]

On a side note, I just went to the official IPL website site and couldn't help but marvel at the "brilliance" of their layout. The "standings" at the bottom left of their main page show all the teams on ZERO points. The Kolkatta Knight Riders are sitting at second to bottom despite their win. They've somehow managed to place the winning points in the "NR" (No Result) column. Clicking on the "standings" tab at the top of the page correctly displays the stats.

Despite no pictures and obv no presence in the media box, cricinfo still manages to provide a typically quality report and post-match analysis.

[Homer]

with due respect Dileep, with Dravid leading the Challengers, their odds of a win are between slim to none.

Cheers