Yesterday turned out to be the best day in IPL so far. Two games, both of them very close contests, had unexpected winners and have made race to semifinal wide open. It could not have been scripted better than this.

Kings XI Punjab (KXP) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by one run and match was open till the final ball was bowled. KXP are now pretty much guaranteed a place in semis but chance of MI took some hit.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) did a huge upset as they beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a low-scoring affair. The match looked under control of CSK till 30^th over (Out of 40) but it slipped out in the final stretch.

These two results have thrown open the race for semifinal berths wide open. Suddenly, chances for Delhi Daredevils (DD) have improved as the other two contenders (CSK, MI) slipped. If DD can win the next two matches by a good margin (one is against MI), they will be guaranteed a place in semis. Being a DD supporter, I am looking forward to that. The remaining two matches of DD are today and on coming Saturday (May 24). It has rained a lot here today and we may not see full match today or even on Saturday. So, it is pretty much a lottery now for DD. Wishing Sehwag and Co all the best for today’s match against KKR.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) also have an outside chance for semis but it looks pretty difficult for them now. Rajasthan Royals (RR) and KXP look certainty and CSK, MI, DD are fighting out for the remaining two spots.

T20 has simplified the game of cricket for people’s understanding. A batsman is trying to hit the ball as hard as he can. A bowler is trying to outwit the batsman and making sure that he does not get hit for big strokes – singles are fine but not boundaries. Easy to follow and discuss making the format more popular than other formats. The way football is played with both teams playing with same intention of scoring more goals and in T20, the intention is to score more runs and nothing else matters.

There is still some scope of simplifying it further. To start with, I think LBW is irrelevant for a T20 game. Batsmen may block balls with their pads in a 5-day match as they need to preserve their wicket but in T20, every ball blocked is ball wasted and nobody wants to do it. LBW unnecessarily creates complexity with multiple variables going in one decision and hawk-eye embarrassing match officials every now and then.

The simpler a sport is the more popular it gets and Cricket has been burdened with so many rules and regulations impacting growth in its popularity. Time to make it simple and more fun!!!

I have read at a number of places that T20 is not really cricket. It is too much in favour of batsmen and bowlers are there as fillers to make batsmen look good. There is essentially no contest between bat and ball.

I do not agree with these statements. If you say, it is not a contest like a 5-day match, I agree but it is still a contest nevertheless. Batsmen are trying to score off every ball in this format and they have no other choice. Bowlers are trying to outwit the batsmen and trying to concede as small number of runs as possible. Every dot ball is a small victory for bowler and increases pressure on batsmen. And there is a contest on each and every ball for the duration of the match and batsmen & bowlers try to win each little contest symbolized by a ball. Bowlers need to think fast and come up with new ideas on each ball and batsmen have to adapt as per each ball keeping match situation in mind. It is a fair contest but of different kind – a different ballgame altogether.

It was bound to happen that there would be T20 leagues in India or any other type of Cricket league. India accounts for more than 80% (guess, but won’t be much off from actual) revenue and audience for game of cricket but hardly 5-10% of Cricket being played is attractive for this huge India audience. When India is playing some top team (Aus, Pak etc) or when there is a marquee series like Ashes that people like to watch Cricket. Though most of the International Cricket being played gets telecasted live in India, but interest is usually low unless India is playing.

This imbalance could have been addressed by India specific cricket only. Unfortunately, India’s domestic cricket is not strong enough or not marketed well to attract the captive audience.

T20 is ideal format for Cricket marketing. The matches are short, can be played at the prime time and in most cases, guarantee a close finish. Cricket is played at fast pace and there is hardly any period when people feel bored. There are also enough breaks – over change, wicket fall or change of innings that can generate advertisement revenue. Ideal mix for everyone involved.

Zee TV saw this huge opportunity provided by imbalance on the quantity of cricket and T20 gave it a vehicle to market Cricket very effectively and it started ICL. It has made a decent start but did not catch people’s imagination as Indian Cricket’s big stars were missing from the roster which would have attracted the audience. IPL has taken it to next level and looks to me as pointer to how cricket will be played in future. India provides the biggest market in Cricket and its audience has every right to choose what they want to watch, who they want to watch and where they want to watch.

I doubt if any other country can come even close to having a parallel league like IPL or ICL. But in India, we can definitely have multiple leagues as there is huge appetite for the game of cricket.

There will definitely be implications for International cricket. Sponsors now have a choice to invest in International cricket with India being one of the many countries playing or invest in India specific league where they can get the very audience they are targeting for their message. No doubt, International cricket involving India will be the most saleable cricket item but the series involving lower ranked countries will definitely take a hit in terms of sponsorship and may become difficult to sustain.

Finally, Cricket may be going the way of Basketball (NBA in USA) or Ice hockey in US/Canada. Basketball is played in very limited number of countries and there would be more people following NBA then international matches or world championship of basketball. NBA has done a lot of customizations to make it TV-friendly and so has T20.

This week showed some clear signs that IPL is serious business for franchise. Franchises owners have not simply joined the IPL bandwagon because Cricket is the most popular sport in India or it is a good opportunity for marketing their products but they have come in this as they see it as a strong business opportunity for making profits and from day 1 itself. Royal Challengers Bangalore fired their CEO, Charu Sharma, as RCB team has failed to deliver good results so far. The move seems to be hasty as we are only halfway through the first year of its existence but it seems to be more intended towards sending out a message to everyone involved with the team that results matter a lot. The huge investment made into the franchise is not for any charity and if franchise has to make money, the team needs to show more fight on field and better results to make sure viewership of its matches does not drop. No body in any team can take his place for granted and performance will dictate a cricketer’s future standing in the league.

Cricket has become truly professional!!!!!

Yesterday turned out to be super sunday for IPL. The two matches played were not very close but they were shocking.

Mumbai Indians were at the bottom of the table and Delhi Daredevils were at the top before the match started but Mumbai still managed to beat Delhi and the margin(29 runs) made it look like a one-sided match in T20 context.

Rajasthan Royals also thrashed Chennai Superkings and Sohail Tanveer bagged best ever bowling performance in a T20 match and again result makes it look like a one-sided match though CSK and RR are pretty close in points table and a while back, CSK looked to be the strongest contender for the IPL title this year.

The results once again show that it is very difficult to make predictions in a T20 match and any team can win/lose on a given day and even margin of win/loss can be a shocker. The competition for inaugural IPL title is open and no team can be deemed as favorite at the mid-way stage. The tournament looks well set for a close finish as we approach the 2nd half of the league matches.