Your place or mine?
23-Mar-2009
(
2983 views
)
We will know where the IPL is going to be played in a few hours from now, but the debate and questions will last longer. Will crowds show up? Will people in the country that hosts it be interested at all? At a more philosophical level, what does this mean for the tournament, and cricket in general?
One of the best ways to get some insights into this debate is to toss the question to regular cricket followers/writers/bloggers from around the world and get a few pieces of perspective. It throws up interesting results.
For instance, both the likely hosts predict good things for the IPL. Mark, from England, though, has a few caveats - most Englishmen have already splurged/ are planning to splurge on Ashes tickets, so pricing will be key.
Sreeram, from India, is not really sure if the IPL anywhere else will have the X factor that it did last time, coming chiefly as it did through the crowds and the mood in the country, though Leo, from South Africa, feels that the IPL will get healthy crowds in South Africa too, given how popular the format is over there, and the television interest in SA in the IPL last season.
Damith, from Sri Lanka, adds that were the IPL to be held in Sri Lanka it would attract huge crowds chiefly on account of the influence of Bollywood in Lanka, which comes as a surprise. Jonathan, from the West Indies, adds a few interesting things about how the IPL gives a lot of power back to the players, and foresees many more administrative convulsions in the future.
But enough of bits, here are the complete set of thoughts put forward by the above contributors. We'll add more to it as we go along. Send in your thoughts to holdingwilley@cartwheelcreative.co.in
Mark Smith (England)
Any cricket fan worth his salt would be crazy not to be hugely excited at the prospect of watching the best cricketers in the world (except Ricky Ponting) playing on their doorstep.
It might be a little optimistic to expect a series of sell-outs, for reasons that I’ll come onto in a sec, but I can’t think of another country outside India, where you can guarantee sizeable crowds.
However, here are the caveats -
Firstly, that old English obsession – the weather. We’ve had a couple of pretty lousy summers on the trot, but each time April and early May have been surprisingly good. Shirt sleeves at the Oval at the end of April has been an unexpected, if a little unnerving, pleasure. You do have to say though, it can get very cold – and if they are planning on starting some games at 3.30 pm, that’ll mean an evening finish – so don’t be surprised to see some faces in the crowd as blue as the Indian one day shirt!
Secondly, there’s the pricing. We’re in the midst of a recession. We’ve just lashed out ridiculous amounts for Ashes tickets and tickets for the ICC 20/20 World Cup – plus we’ve got our own domestic 20/20 tournament in May and June. The organisers need to bear all this in mind when they come to start setting ticket prices. As a rough guide, £10 per ticket would be excellent, £20 acceptable, £30 likely and £40 sadly predictable.
On the whole though, it’s a fantastic prospect for English cricket fans – even if it means flirting with hypothermia and a grovelling letter to the bank manager!
Leo Townsend (South Africa)
I would be very keen for the tournament to be held in South Africa - we'll do a fine job of hosting it, and I will be able to go and watch some of the games.
I think there is every chance that the crowds in SA would be healthy, although this will of course depend a lot on the scheduling. I guess if the primary television audience is in India then the organisers might insist that matches are played in the afternoon (early evening in India?), in which case the weekday matches might not be all that well attended. Then again, April is jam-packed with public holidays over here (no fewer than 5 days off this year between April 10th and May 1st), which would boost attendance enormously on those days.
As is the case all over the world, 20-over cricket is extremely popular in South Africa. As you know, we hosted the inaugural T20 world cup, and that tournament was a huge success. Last year's IPL was also shown on our local pay-TV, and by all accounts it went down very well. So I think people over here will respond well to the tournament taking place in South Africa, and they'll turn out for the games.
I don't have any worries in principle about the tournament being moved out of India. Maybe it's a foreigner's perspective but it didn't seem like the franchises had much more than a trivial connection to their home cities in the first place, and when you consider the proportion of non-Indian players featuring in the league then the idea that it ought to be played in India does appear quite arbitrary.
Sreeram Ramachandran (India)
I am more than a little sceptical about the IPL being anywhere close to being as successful as it was the last time, though I do hope I am wrong.
The key thing about the IPL was a sudden oncoming of a festive spirit which just took a lot of people in its wake and put them together in a common room as a part of the same journey, metaphorically speaking. Much of this ‘festive spirit’ came because of the crowds, the general hype and the vibrant vibe around the stadiums. It was as ‘Indian’ as it gets in its nature and tone.
I don’t know if that can be replicated abroad. The numbers in terms of crowd attendance will be much lower. But my bigger question is will those attending get so maddeningly worked up about and involved in the whole thing as only sub-continental crowds can? To quote a corny old soft-drink tagline, it is a ‘zing’ thing.
In effect, it is a rock-and-a-hard-place question. For the brand IPL, what’s worse - not having the tournament at all, for understandable reasons, or having a lower-key, not-as-successful one, but at least keeping the event going? I would pick the latter too I suppose, but I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be too big a compromise.
Jonathan Cumberbatch (West Indies)
I think it would be crazy to not acknowledge the financial benefits to the cricketing infrastructure of any host nation so on those terms I would agree.
As the dust settles from last years' pyrotechnics it seems the 50 over ODI has now been hurt most by the arrival of Twenty20 with Test cricket staging a comeback in the eye of most regional and global spectators. We'll see how it all plays out.
There is also an element that I have written on previously regarding the IPL and similar leagues: it has placed the central power of the game with the players, providing a living for most and a fortune for some that they could never have hoped to accrue in this sport. This should be applauded though I foresee many administrative convulsions similar to what we are currently enduring in various countries in the years ahead. All a part of it I guess - potential player revolt scare is actually the primary reason why the major soccer league teams keep three XIs concurrently.
My one concern regarding hosting an IPL is crowd attendance. WC2007 made it clear that Caribbean crowds prefer to watch Windies players, this remained the case even after ticket prices were reduced. Sowing team loyalty is always a challenge and I can only recommend a heavy investment in such in every host nation at least three months prior to a season.
Damith S (Sri Lanka)
Well, as unlikely as it is that it will be moved to SL, if it was, it would be a great honour for SL. Unfortunately I don't think SL are quite ready to host such a massive tournament under such short notice. The SLC has appointed a new interim committee which just took office a few weeks ago and already things are in a mess, with some appointments being deemed illegal and issues within the committee itself.
I'd rather not hand anything this big to a bunch of people who can’t even get along at this point, who might end causing the whole country a huge embarrassment if it’s handled badly.
In terms of crowds I think if it were to be held in SL or even in Singapore, there will be big crowds. Especially in SL where the influence of Bollywood is massive. People know the stars and follow it religiously. The IPL, while being about cricket is also about Bollywood and this attraction will definitely draw massive crowds in SL.
From the recent T20, SL v Ind, the first in SL, I can see there is a massive call for T20 cricket and the crowds flocked to see it. With the big Indian names and other international players present there shouldn’t be any issues with regards to that.
If it is moved to England or SA (which it probably will be) I'm not sure if it will draw as big a crowd. The Bollywood factor might not feature that much as it's not that big in the western world. That said T20 is massively popular in both these countries and such a big event will definitely catch the interest of the masses.
To be quite honest I think it's one of the smartest decisions made by the BCCI and Lalit Modi. If they are not 100% sure of the security levels, with the shadow of the Mumbai attacks and the attack on the SL players still fresh on everyone’s mind, India could not possibly risk another lapse in security to occur if they are to secure them selves as a host for other teams.
It might also have serious repercussions regarding their status as a host for the 2011 WC.
The Lahore attack on our players has put serious doubts in players from around the world (mainly the western countries) and India needs to protect their interest and the future of the IPL and cricket in India.
Even if crowds are poor and they don’t make as much money as they want to, Lalit Modi knows that the longevity of the IPL is more important than anything else.
The IPL is essentially an Indian institution so the glamour of the love affair between cricket and Bollywood might be lost from it being hosted outside India but on the flip side, maybe it will get people thinking about this being an opportunity to gain more publicity for the event.
Who knows, in future the IPL might take on the form of a carnival of cricket where it is held in different regions around the world, even traditionally non-cricketing nations.