Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, and Chennai Superkings might be names worthy of exotic amusement park rides, but they’re also franchises in the world’s most popular cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League.
The IPL has revolutionized the sport since the league began in 2008. It has exploded in popularity around the world, despite purist critics who argue that it is more spectacle than sport. The IPL has had two very successful debut seasons, capturing the attention of the world’s cricket fans and nations. The league saw Bollywood A-listers and South Asian industrialists rush for ownership of the eight new franchises.
Although a game of English origin, cricket-crazy India was the first country to capitalize on the sport in a massive way. Developing countries usually have their athletes “poached” to play in European and North American leagues. The IPL can take some pride in hosting the tournament where the best cricket players in the world make a trip to the sub-continent to play in what is becoming the first elite cricket league at the club level.
The IPL adopted Twenty20 cricket on the assumption that fans of other sports could get excited about cricket if it duplicated the pace and formula of other major sports. To a new follower of the game, cricket can be painfully slow. The joke about cricket is that it is known as the “gentlemen’s game” but is actually the “unemployed man’s game,” in reference to its lengthy match times.
When the 2007 Twenty20 Cricket World Cup reduced the length of games, the move received a positive reaction from current and new fans alike. Twenty20 is essentially the shortest form of the game and refers to the number of overs (one over equals six balls or deliveries by the bowler) each team has to play. Combined with a new three-hour limit on games, the sport has become more marketable and profitable. Since basketball is watched for jaw dropping slam-dunks and hockey for bone-jarring body checks and light-speed puck play, Twenty20 cricket called for a faster run rate and pace as well as hard hitting. Teams need to hit 6ers—boundary-clearing shots that are the equivalent of home runs—to score the maximum amount of runs within a team’s 20 overs at bat. For this reason, some cricket purists refer to the Twenty20 as spectacle because the time constraints and limited innings take away from the strategy and skill of the longer games. Twenty20’s supporters defiantly maintain that the format is more explosive and requires more athleticism and energy.
Until now, the largest prestige and salary a cricketer could receive was through playing for his country. Professional cricket is very different from the sporting culture of North America and Europe, where NBA superstars and English Premier League footballers are constantly seen in the colours of their club and only don national jerseys for the international gig like the World Cup or the Olympics.
Cricket was different in this regard until the cash-rich IPL entered the picture. With England international Andrew Flintoff and Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni signing in the $1.5-million range, the divide between club and country widened. Cricket doesn’t pay as well as other sports, especially internationally. Almost all of the top cricketers in the world wanted to play in the IPL and were willing to sacrifice their spots on the national squad. The lucrative IPL has therefore in effect forced national cricketing boards to relax their policies to deal with players wanting to play in the IPL. Twenty20 cricket now engages in the signing, drafting, selling, and trading of players just like other franchised sports, though it’s something new to cricket. The IPL has shown its influence in other regards as well: the International Cricket Council now accounts for IPL scheduling and has attempted to reduce the number of international tours to accommodate for Twenty20 leagues.
It is fascinating to observe how the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 cricket have not only reshaped the game, but also changed certain social aspects in the sub-continent. Cheerleading is a huge part of North American sports franchises. The pure sports entertainment value is obvious: it gets the home crowd going and the rowdy fans whistling. Conservative Indian society probably never imagined a day when cheerleaders would invade India, where young women showing skin is generally frowned upon and provocative dancing is considered taboo. The IPL introduced cheerleading to sports in India in 2008 to criticism and social disapproval. The IPL even flew in Washington Redskins cheerleaders to represent the Bangalore Royal Challengers franchise. Other teams soon followed suit, and foreign cheerleaders became the norm in the first season of the Indian Premier League. Although some dancers were told to tone it down at times, the idea of cheerleaders slyly climbed away from social disapproval. Indian television networks even aired reality shows about selecting cheerleaders during the off-seasons. Cheerleading is now generally accepted as part of the Twenty20 cricket game.
Cricket apparel was also drastically altered for the IPL seasons. Traditional cricket jerseys are often white with minimal colour and no advertising. Compare this with the flashy black and gold jerseys of the Kolkata Knightriders franchise, emblazoned with a golden Nokia logo, a clear attempt on the IPL franchises’ part to duplicate the wildly successful merchandising tactics of savvy European football clubs. The ploy to make cricket exciting is visible in the colourful and corporate-charged display that is IPL on TV. Nike, Reebok, and Adidas all claimed pieces of the cricket pie and the endorsement deals in the first two seasons would make even Lebron or Kobe do a double take.
The future of Twenty20 cricket looks very promising, and only proves that the sport of cricket is not immune to the effects of globalization. Attendance has skyrocketed, and the sport is getting the younger audience it craved internationally. The eight franchises modelled themselves after North American and European clubs and teams, in the hope of expanding into a global game, like soccer. Although cricket is already larger than life in India, the sport’s new and trendy image may help it grow in other countries. It provides younger fans with a more exciting forum to idolize their favorite stars, and younger players to dream about the glory and fame associated with making it big in the sport.
South Africa, which hosted the second season of the Indian Premier League, has since established a popular Twenty20 league. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have also followed suit. Canada’s own Scotiabank National T20 Championships was also a surprising success this year. The Airtel Twenty20 Champions League tournament in India this October has picked up from where the previous two seasons of the IPL left off, glamorizing the game even further. The Champions League, a concept like UEFA’s soccer tournament, was planned to take place in India in the fall of 2008, but was cancelled after the Mumbai terrorist attacks. It debuted on Oct. 8 this year, and can be seen on ATN Cricket Plus or ATN CBN until Oct. 23.
