IPL 11 - How Far Have We Come from IPL 1?

SRK with his daughter in IPL 1 & IPL 11

Introduction

To identify the legacy that IPL has built around itself throughout the last decade, there perhaps can be no other evident example than Washington Sundar. In 2008, when Brendon Mccullum was smashing the RCB bowlers to all corners of the Chinnaswamy, Washington was an eight year old kid, in Chennai, who, just like almost all other kids of India, dreamt of growing up to be a cricketer. A decade later, that eight year old kid is in the twilight of his teenage years and ironically finds himself in the same IPL team with the first ever hero of IPL, Brendon Mccullum. Perhaps, to add further to the coincidence, both Bazz and Washington find themselves representing RCB, the same franchise, that Mccullum himself massacred a decade back, in the first ever IPL match.

Commercial Success of IPL as a Brand

IPL has come a long way, from what it was a decennary back, purely in terms of money involved in the game. Star India has bought the broadcasting rights of IPL (2018-2022) for a whooping 16347.5 crores. Just to put this massive amount in perspective, it means, that BCCI will earn 54.5 crores INR every match by selling the broadcasting rights to Star India. The term, that is of so much importance here, is 'every' i.e. not only the play-offs or the final; for every ordinary league match (be it Match no. 24 or 49), the income from the match, only through broadcasting will be 54.5 crores. That gives us an idea, of how the idea of IPL has grown to be such a massive commercial hit for BCCI, making it one of the richest cricket bodies in the world.

Besides BCCI, the money for the players from the franchises has also increased exponentially. Before the IPL, there were some 15-20 Indian players at the top level, who were making a livelihood out of the game of cricket. Now, with IPL, more and more players are coming into the game professionally, and the pool of 15-20 players at the topmost level, has broadened to a list of 45-50 players, who are looking at this game, as the primary source of income. This is only enriching Indian cricket as a whole, and looking back, it can easily be said that  IPL is the best thing that happened to Indian cricket (if not World Cricket), 10 years back.

Senior Pros vs Young Guns- Back to Square One

During the initial years of IPL in 2008, in order to establish its brand value, BCCI decided to go for marquee Indian players to represent each IPL team. Thus Sourav Ganguly was assigned to KKR, Sachin to MI, VVS Laxman to Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad), Rahul Dravid to RCB, Virender Sehwag to DD and so on. With the tie up of these star players to these respective franchises, came the uninhibited fan support, which these superstars brought along with them to the respective teams. However, after the glitz of the first season got over, team owners started to realise, that these marquee players (in their mid 30s) were nearing the twilight phase of their careers. Gradually, the sense of winning matches & tournaments, superseded emotions, and the marquee 'aged' players got stripped off their leadership status and moved on to become mentors of their respective teams. Hence began a massive uproar in IPL, which gradually spread to world cricket, that stated "T20 cricket is exclusively for the Young Generation". The argument got ignited further, when after a disastrous Australian Summer for the Indian team in 2012, the contemporary captain MS Dhoni, came out in a press conference, and stated the importance of young legs on the field, in  place of the senior players, to save runs and hold onto tough catches. The idea was slowly beginning to trend in world cricket, that if you are past your early 30s, you have perhaps played your last T20 or IPL match for your side.

However, a decade from the inception of this cricketing fiesta called IPL, things seem to return to square one. It seems, that the early 30s and perhaps the mid 30s players are returning back to T20 cricket and specifically IPL. Let us take a look at a bit of stat to bolster this argument. The average age of the top 10 run getters of IPL 2008, was 28.7 years. The number increased to 29.1 years, in 2012 and finally 30.6 years in IPL 2017. The same IPL teams, who were filling their squads with early 20s and mid 20s players, in the first few seasons of IPL, are gradually inclining towards the senior pros and proven performers in their mid 30s. And finally, to put a seal of authenticity on this argument, the same Indian captain, who stated the importance of young legs on the field in the 2012 Australian Summer, came out in front of the press,6 years later, before the beginning of IPL 2018, and stated the importance of senior seasoned performers in the game of T20 cricket. It is perhaps the biggest cricketing irony of the first decade of  IPL, that the youngest capped player of the CSK team, led by MSD, ( who did a somersault to his 'young guns' ideology in a matter of 6 years time) in IPL 2018, is Ravindra Jadeja, who will be turning 30, on December, this year.

Cricket extending horizons

During a time, when ICC is getting slammed on all quarters, for hosting a 10 team world cup in 2019 and restricting cricket to the few top nations, it is indeed a surprise, that IPL is not being lauded for promoting the game of cricket to lesser known nations. When IPL started in 2008, foreign recruits for franchises, meant established overseas players from South Africa, Australia, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, who has had more than decent records in international cricket. Gradually, through the last 10 years of IPL, the importance of the scouts and cricket analysts for each franchise increased and the search for overseas players with X factor extended to Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and even Nepal. Now, associate nations are looking at IPL as a motivation to be diligent in their games as they have become well aware of the fact that consistent exhibition of performance even at the associate level, may land them up with hefty IPL contracts. The change in the pattern of overseas recruits, may be termed as the biggest change from IPL 2008 to IPL 2018. I am pretty sure, that no cricketing analyst would have predicted a decade back that IPL franchises,would be paying 9 crores INR, to buy a 19 year old Afghanistan leg spinner, as the lead spinner of an IPL team.

Conclusion

IPL has been the bandwagon of Indian cricket for the last decade. Not only, has it established BCCI as the richest cricketing body in the world, it is also providing India consistently with a pool of off-the-shelf kind of players, who are easing into international cricket, and performing extremely well. The first decade of IPL, inspite of a few controversies here and there, has been a massive success to say the least. Let us hope that, the next decade of IPL brings in more accolades to BCCI and turns out to be even better for Indian cricket and its fans.