April 18, 2008, Bengaluru. Thousands in attendance, and a million others watching at home. Two behemoths of Indian cricket as captains. Two teams dripping with star-quality. Fantasy meeting reality. Where the top players from different countries play under one roof. And where national allegiances, for two months, will not matter an iota.
The IPL, fuelled by crores and crores of rupees, engineered to have the best compete against the best, and
turbocharged by Brendon McCullum, takes flight and takes off. From Bengaluru, and far into the cricketing stratosphere. Never to contemplate a look back, and only seeking further galaxies and universes to conquer.
IPL is an outlier due to its unpredictability
The IPL has now been around for 17 seasons, with the 18th iteration a stone’s throw away. Anything that lasts this long is bound to face challenges, hurdles and obstacles. Including battling the concept of diminishing marginal utility, which says that the more you have of a thing (even if it is very, very good), the lesser joy you derive progressively.
But the IPL seems to be an outlier. An aberration in a realm that the tournament has created for itself. And an anomaly that sits in a plane of its own.
The crux, undeniably, is the quality of cricket, which pushes boundaries each year, makes people wonder what is truly possible across 40 overs of cricket and how many twists and turns a T20 contest can realistically house. And every season, there is something intriguing, something more novel, something more out of the box, something that makes you go ‘wow’.
That could either be a rule change, like with the addition of the
Impact Player (although the jury is still out on how it impacts the long-term health of Indian cricket). Or just the auction shake-up that happens periodically.
Then there is the matter of
ten cities outrightly being involved, and each of them, in a microcosm, feel like a world on their own. Loyalties running rampant, the thought of switching sides being derided upon, and a general sense, even among those beyond these cities, of identifying themselves with teams and players.
Whether it be the late great Shane Warne’s odds-defying Rajasthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings and MS Dhoni’s numerous title-winning melanges, the Mumbai Indians and Rohit Sharma’s intricately crafted irresistible forces, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ enterprising and effervescent champion sides, the Gujarat Titans, the Sunrisers Hyderabad and their almost-perfect campaigns, or Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s trials and tribulations in pursuit of that elusive prize – there are stories to get invested into, and narratives to get immersed in. Wherever you look. Wherever you gaze.
That, perhaps, is where the true beauty of the IPL lies, where the ‘I’ might as well stand for incredible (pardon the cliché). And that is not because of how many stars play, but because how many can become stars overnight and compete with the established order.
Every IPL seasons gives Indian cricket a new star
The bravado, the belligerence, that I-will-take-on-the-world with the whole world watching mentality, is to this current and particular generation desirable and enviable, even if not always achievable. And through the IPL and its myriad storylines, they see themselves as being in the thick of the action. Shoulder to shoulder, chest puffed out, without batting an eyelid and following the beacon.
Furthermore, T20s are the easiest way to reach faraway lands and get distant audiences hooked onto the sport. The IPL, by virtue of being the premier franchise T20 league on the planet, and by having a designated window, which allows for the best players to be almost always available, becomes the finest driver of that pursuit.
Additionally, social media and meme (or pop) culture these days, while being a menace to those on the wrong end of it, piques the interest of a section of population that may not have previously watched the IPL. But now, after giggling over something, they want more context, even if it is only to brag and brandish that knowledge.
Countless hours, hence, are spent, not just on watching the actual match, but also discussing and dissecting the happenings. That, in turn, results in greater viewership and demand, which explains why media organizations, streaming platforms and advertisers are queuing up to pay exorbitantly, adding to the allure and stature of the league.
The recent acquisition of media rights in 2022 is a perfect case in point, which exceeded
6 billion USD across five years (including TV and live streaming platforms), and was, eye-wateringly, more than double the previous sum. Advertisers want a piece of the action too and commit hefty amounts, with ad revenue projections for this season, according to reports, north of 6000 crore INR.
Another unmissable sign that the tournament is growing and growing, going to places where cricket has never been, and another indication that the law of diminishing returns has been bent.
It will not be a stretch either to suggest that India, which otherwise has a tropical monsoon climate and has three distinct seasons, also has a fourth, which may be tougher to explain geographically, but arrives just as unerringly, year on year. And grander than before.
During that period, nothing else seems to matter. After slogging it out on hot, tiring and testing summer days in different parts of the country, almost everyone congregates in front of their screens in the evening. Knowing what is to come, but still not able to decipher what is actually going to happen.
This is the unpredictability of the greatest kind. Akin to a high-action thriller. Those, though, materialize only intermittently. This box-office show premieres each and every day for two and a half months. And the exhilaration never drops.
Back in 2008, the IPL was a venture into a brave, new world. There was excitement but also a slight tremble, almost like a nervous tiptoe, because it was a step into untapped and uncharted territory, and into the unknown. And it took only a few days (or a few hours if you watched that Baz McCullum special live) for it to be embraced.
‘IPL has only gotten bigger and better’
There were eight teams then. There are ten now. There were hundreds of crores involved then, there are thousands of crores involved now. There were eleven players (per team) playing then, there are twelve in each side in every game now. Whichever metric you use, the IPL has only gotten bigger and better.
A glossy, glitzy and glamorous product, scoffing and smirking at conventional economic concepts, and at those who ever felt its craze would die down. In fact, the only paradigm that applies to the IPL is that of increasing and exponentially growing returns. And, crucially, the IPL has retained the core values that made it what it is.
It remains the public’s favourite getaway, the festival that gets families together, and the spectacle that everyone acknowledges, recognizes and knows is unrivalled, unparalleled and unmatched. It is, after all, where fantasy meets reality, and of course, where talent meets opportunity.
When the IPL is on, everything just feels…alright. Still finding new ways to take breaths away, produce jaw-dropping entertainment, and be more magnificent, marvellous and majestic. Year after year. That is what keeps bringing people back.
And it has been that way since 2008.