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It’s probably time to cut short the Infinitely Prolonged League (IPL)

We are halfway into the Indian Premier League (IPL) and people are already asking how much longer before the play-offs. For a tournament of its kind, the IPL has yawn-inducing schedules. It spans almost two months on the cricketing calendar; it takes an eternity before the play-offs are decided.

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It’s probably time to cut short the Infinitely Prolonged League (IPL)

It would make the IPL much more interesting if teams were divided into two groups of five or six teams each and each playing the other twice © IANS

By Dhananjay Devasper

We are halfway into the Indian Premier League (IPL) and people are already asking how much longer before the play-offs. For a tournament of its kind, the IPL has yawn-inducing schedules. It spans almost two months on the cricketing calendar; it takes an eternity before the play-offs are decided.

If television ratings and new movie releases are anything to go by, no one’s afraid of how the IPL will affect collections. TV viewership is declining, which is a worry in itself since this is directly related to ad revenue. More so it underlines the fact that the viewer does not mind missing a few matches and could probably care less until his team plays. Even Bollywood which would plan their releases such that the IPL would not clash with it, had no issues releasing their movies during this season.

In a world where the attention span is very low, it has almost become norm to keep things short and interesting. It would make the IPL much more interesting if teams were divided into two groups of five or six teams each and each playing the other twice. This could help shorten the schedules by about two-three weeks. The play-off could be “best-of-three” matches before the all culminating final clash.

And nothing frustrates the viewer more than seeing teams like the Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils continuously underperform. These matches are probably the least viewed on television and best remembered only when someone does something extraordinary, like Steve Smith, hurling himself like Superman to stop a definite “Yes Bank Maximum”. And with no “after Party” madness to keep the cricketers and their shenanigans in the news, it slowly runs the risk of being reduced to another laborious tournament.

But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL Governing Council could care less, since the stadiums seem to be full and more matches obviously mean more money for the franchises, some of who have still to break even. It will continue this way since there are eight home matches, which gives the fan ample opportunity to see at least one IPL match. With almost every city teeming into the millions, there’s enough strength in numbers, not to warrant a change in format. And since the IPL is all about the money and less still about the cricket, any format that cuts into the earnings will never see the light of day.

Stay tuned…

(Dhananjay Devasper is an “IT guy” by profession and a sports fanatic at heart. He has an unbridled passion for sports and Indian achievements in sport. Extremely opinionated, he attempts offering perspectives around sports which are simple to understand and easy to relate with)

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