Monday, April 28, 2008

IPL You Beauty!

The Indian Premier League match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indian started off with the mumbai crowd cheering on their new captain Shaun Pollock. Ravi Shastri even went on to say that it sounded like Pollock was the captain of India. I reckon Pollock probably never got cheered as much in South Africa.

Now thats loyalty to your city team.

The match ended with the Mumbai crowd cheering Adam Gilchrist's extraordinary innings that decimated Mumbai.

And thats the beauty of the IPL.

Loyalties have been changing, people have more than one team to support, the public is not sure who to back, the crowd cheers players from opposing teams, players are playing for cities they don't belong to, people are supporting teams of cities they have never been to. You get the gist. Illogical?

Its simple really - Everyone is supporting good cricket. Well, its not the good cricket as we know it but its entertaining stuff. Exciting stuff. The IPL bandwagon is marching on and everyone from the players, the commentators, the supporters are loving it.

The day Andrew Symonds smashed the Rajhastan Royals for a cracking century, 800,000 viewers from Australia were tuned in to watch the match. The involvement of Symonds, Gilchrist, Warne, and Watson definitely had something to do with that but 800,000 viewers from a country where the matches start during the wee hours of the night is an indication of the success of the IPL.

Last night when Gilchrist was on fire, the number of viewers from down under might have hit a million. The numbers aren't out yet but its performances like these that make the IPL what it is.

It was a super innings from Gilchrist. It was better than what Symonds did the other night. It was better than Hussey's unbeaten 116. And it was better than McCullums record score due to the manner in which it was played in - there were no edges, no dropped catches, no play and misses.

Gilchrist was on top from the word go and he remained there right till the end.

Rock on Gilly!

Oh and as Uncle J's support shifts from the Deccan Chargers to Delhi Daredevils to Kings XI Punjab, mine is shifting to and from Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, and Deccan Chargers.

As I said, the beauty of the IPL.

Make your pitch on this post...



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3 Pitched:

  1. Anonymous said...
     

    800,000 viewers at 3am also shows that Aussies are crazy, literally, about cricket and not only the IPL.

    Even though the Test players are leaving for the Caribbean plenty will tune in for Warne's games with Rajasthan.

  2. Trideep said...
     

    The beauty of IPL lies in the fact that its cricket thats taking the centre stage. I would like to quote again a banner that i saw on TV-"In IPL, theres no religion, no country... theres only cricket"

  3. Q said...
     

    What a banner that is Trideep. It says it all!

    Nesta - Gilchrist, Warne, and McGrath are staying on and I think they are a bigger draw than Ponting, Hayden, and Hussey. Symonds aside, more will tune in to watch the former 3 than any other Aussie.

    That holds true for Aussie viewers as well as other around the world.

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