IPL and my Aunt

And so it begins...the mother of all battles, the frenzy of fans and the unavoidable razmatazz called IPL! Oh boy, what a start it was indeed! I dont remember when was the last time I had so much fun, excitement and sheer feeling of happiness before Friday the 18th, 2008.
It was the day DLF IPL started!
Great opening ceremony and even better first match between KKR and RCB. More about matches and teams in my next posting. This posting is for IPL and what it has done and what it could do to the future of cricket.
When IPL was just introduced to the world, as always a bunch of naysayers said that the concept was rediculous, how it would harm the "real"cricket, no "real" bonding/imparting of knowledge will happen between big players and juniors and ofcourse, not many will watch the matches.

WRONG, WRONG and WRONG!!!!!!
As is the T20 format all about hitting hard and smashing , IPL did just that- it smashed all naysayers' "wiseness" and hit home a straight 6!
For example, till about last thursday, my aunt's life revolved around OTs (she is a surgeon!) and only thing she could talk about was C-section deliveries. After IPL's first match happend in Bangalore she is talking about Ishant's and Dinda's deliveries and then it sunk on me that IPL has done its job. It is popularising cricket to a great extent- it is reaching out to people who would earleir not watch cricket because it was a fullday/five day affair. Who knows what will happen in the future, maybe it will take over football and basketball in popularity one day.
DURATION:
Take me for instance---Time was always a factor for me when it came to my loving football over cricket. I love football- cause you just go out there, give your best and after 90 minutes (in most cases), the game is over. But not so with cricket.
With work pressure rising, expanding business line, I hardly had the mood or the time to sit through the whole day to catch a game of cricket. I had to please myself with "Highlights". But with this T20 format along with IPL, every game is a Highlight!
TREAT:
Watching Ponting giving advice to Ishant, when the later was losing his nerves the other day at Edens, Ponting hugging Dinda after he got the opponent out and Hussey lifting Laxmi Shukla after hitting the winning 6 at Edens--- these are the Golden moments--momets all cricket fans had dreamed of always and now their dreams are coming true! Ofcourse, the raining of 6s and smashing of wickets also have their fair share in giving more allure to T20 format and IPL, but nothing, according to me compares the beauty of watching multi-national teammates, big international players showing the new entrants a trick or two and sworn enemies becoming teammates! Tell me how many times in life do you get to see two of Cricketing world' s most aggressive and strategist captains in the same team fighting for the same cause, when not in the too distant past, they were fighting against each other for the World Cup! If not for anything else, I will still watch matches for these moments- They are just MAGICAL!.
SPIRIT/PHILOSOPHY
Many proponents of the longer version of the game believe that this T20 format is bogus and real talent can only be seen in Test cricket. Yes Test cricket is the real hero; You have to have the talent; but you also do a lot of calculations, holding back and stuff like that. . However, the philosophy of T20 format is to not to do any calculations whatsoever, just go there, give your 200 % and be happy knowing that you did give your all and did not hold back as part of the strategy. Personally thats my philosophy too, as I'm completely inspired by Prefontane (of USA). Much to the frustration and dismay of his coach, He always said, "how can I be called a good long distance runner until and unless I run to my full potential from the very first lap and test my lungs to their full capacity! I donot want to run a calculated run, I want just to run to my full capacity and then if I win, I'm the real winner!" T20 is pretty much in line with that philosophy- Let the best man hit and the best bowler break the stumps! Classy players will stay and they will adjust no matter the format. So, a classy batsman like Sehwag will hit a tripple ton even in Test matches and so will McCullum hit a 157 in a super flat pitch, when others are struggling to score even a single.
One-day cricket might just not survive in future but Classy players will survive always!