DLF IPL 2011..

[sandy123]

Excitement is going start Today. Which Team you are supporting?

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Turning a blind eye to the likely spam nature of your post... I guess an IPL thread isn't a bad idea. So, moved to the Other Cricket forum

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

No Zimbabwean so not much interested though happy to see 'Tuskers' franchise as well in IPL.

[Dr_Situ(ZimFanatic)]

HARARE INDIANS

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Is the IPL losing its relevance? Clearly there is still a huge following in India, but from what I've seen (on YouTube, it's not even broadcast in Australia any more) the stadiums, while still pretty full, are not absolutely packed like they were a few years ago. According to Cricinfo the TV ratings have dropped sharply as well. Maybe the IPL is finally being exposed as the commercial, money-driven pseudo-competition that it really is.

Nobody can deny that it has been very profitable and successful so far, and the organisers should be applauded for that (ignoring the fact that the ICL beat them to the punch). But they made what I think will be a crucial error... when they split the teams up earlier this year and put everyone back in the auction, gee was that short-sighted. I guess they thought a player auction would stir up some excitement or anticipation or something, but really they abolished the notion of loyalty. Not only player loyalty, but fan loyalty. It takes more than three years for a fan, in my opinion, to bleed the colours of a team which has only just come into existence. The IPL teams were created out of nothing, there was no history in the colours of each team. The only unifying factor was the players, the fans felt like a part of a club because they are sharing the journey with the players. Get rid of the players and what are you left with? An illustrious history dating back to 2008? The IPL might survive this due to Indian fans still getting behind their local team, regardless of the personnel... but it surely will alienate everyone else?

The reason other franchised team sports (soccer, AFL, rugby, etc) can transition through players is because the club is bigger than the individual. But they can afford to do that because the club has a strong history. IPL clubs do not.

With that out of the way, the sound of the Big Bash League in Australia sounds awful. It's like Cricket Australia is trying to jump on a bandwagon that has a four year headstart on them. They'll probably still be able to make it into a commercial success, which for them is the only benchmark I imagine. But that won't stop it from being a complete gimmick. Has anyone else heard about this atrocious "super over" idea being floated? At least the current KFC Big Bash is a gimmick which has heart...

This new tournament will be split into city-based franchises. Way to alienate any current supporters of domestic cricket! I'll always bleed Western Australia... not that I'm a huge fan of domestic cricket, but I'll go to a session of a Shield game if I'm in the area. My point is that WA is the club with the history behind it. "Perth Whatever" will be born from corporate greed and nothing more. It'll be even worse in the eastern states, Sydney and Melbourne will have two teams. So what we will have is a situation where old rivalries (NSW vs Vic) will be brushed aside for man-made inter-city rivalries (Sydney 1 vs Sydney 2) which nobody will care about because - wait for it - how will someone in Sydney be able to choose which team to go for? The best case scenario is that someone arbitrarily picks a team to support. The worst case scenario is that the same person has no more than a passing interest in either team because in the past they used to root for their state.

I'm not against CA, BCCI, ICC etc making a few bucks, in fact I encourage it. But I don't like it when it's done at the expense of the people that make it possible - the supporters. BCCI screwed over the supporters with their player re-locations and CA will do the same thing. I wish that Cricket Australia had tried to persevere with the Big Bash in its current form. As I said, at least it had heart. I think with the right approach they could have made it more commercially viable and true to its roots. For a start, they could have sold the TV rights to a broadcast network rather than pay-TV. Short term, it probably means they would have to sell the rights for less money - but broadcasting to an audience of around 500,000 per match (what I'm guessing a domestic Twenty20 would get on Channel 9) would surely make the sport more accessible to the public, generate more buzz and publicity and ultimately give it more exposure in the future than it's 20,000 per match on Fox Sports or whatever it attracts. Instead, what they are proposing will be completely fake just like the IPL, but without the star players.

Thank God for international cricket right? It's been too long since I've watched a Test match

[ZIMDOGGY]

IPL is a bit of a joke.

Kolkata knight riders? What's that? Have David hasselhoff as the logo or the bad dude from mad max 1?
Mumbai Indians ? U dont name a logo after ur country WTF

Chennai SUPER kings? I guess a regular king don't cut it no more.
Royal challengers? Watch out super kings u have a challenger...!
Kings 11 ? Ok more kings

Royals? Getting beyond a joke on the royalty thing now...

Pune warriors India? Just tack on the country name at the end yeah why not, someone might think Pune is in Lebanon or something otherwise

[eugene]

To be honest I prefered the ICL. At least the teams had something to do with the area they were representing. The Lahore Badshahs and Dhaka Warriors were very popular in their respective countries.

Australia and New Zealand should have got together for a T20 League. 6 teams from Australia and 4 from New Zealand.

[eugene]

New Zealand always have the difficulty of having 6 domestic sides that are all well supported by loyal fanbases. It woudl never work trying to merge those sides for a T20 competition. I guess the best thing would be for NZ to have its own competition with the top two qualifying for the trans-tasman T20. I really don't know what Cricket Australia are thinking with 2 teams each from Sydney and Melbourne. How will anyone choose which team to support? It would have been better to place a team in Canberra and one in Darwin, or else just have 2 NZ teams.