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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Life after Indian Premier League

59 matches big soap opera ended on a high on Sunday with Warne's Royals winning the inaugural IPL championship. I just thank god it was not like Ekta Kapoor Serials running for decades, it was short and sweet and created a thunder all around the world. Yes it showed to the world that the commercial form of cricket has arrived and now it can think of matching the fan following and craze of football all around the world.

There were new viewers in form of kids and women who would never have watched the 50-50 and test version saying it as boring, but they enjoyed this short form in ground and in homes. Earlier families would have dinner at 8 and they would have either gone for a evening walk if they were not staying in concrete jungles of modern cities otherwise they would have watched some serials on television and slept. But IPL changed the whole schedule now dinner before 8 or during the 10 minute break and it became a habit in the past 45 days.

Now I am feeling empty empty after 45 days of fun. I always believed that this will not degrade the level of cricket but it will increase the skill level as bowlers will think of innovative ways to get batsman out and they will take care of no balls , batsman will invent new shots and improvise a lot and fielding standard will rise. It all happened , those who termed it as a hit and run cricket with no skills required are now quiet.

Actually they were the people who are with natural tendency of human beings of being susceptible to change, they roared when one day cricket came and so did they shouted against it now. Even I am a test cricket fan but this twenty20 also requires a lot of skills.

BCCI made a lot of hoopla even they wouldn't have thought of before the starting of the tournament. Who would have thought of teams becoming profitable in the first year itself ? KKR followed the first law of branding by being first in advertising and publicizing itself their by creating a brand has helped it earn profit in first year itself.

Details of profit and loss the franchises as in todays economic times are

KKR + 8 crores
Raj Royals + 5 crores
Kings X1 - 3.5 crores
Chennai - 4 crores
Delhi - 8 crores
Deccan - 20 crores
Mumbai - 21 crores
Banglore - 45 crores

+ is profit and - is loss

Now we will see the after effects of IPL, brand value of Dhoni will rise further and shane warne will be selling goods on Indian television. Footfalls on malls and multiplexes will come back to normal and I feel from next year onwards the IPL season will be fought by malls by turning the 45 days into sale and discount period. News channel will start beaming gossip news like "commissioner's dog found" etc etc.

We may also see the franchises playing matches outside India to keep the brand value alive like football clubs. Lot will happen before the next season but lets not change gear and move to Euro-08.

Poll Result

Delhi Daredevils1124%

Chennai Super Kings818%

Rajasthan Royals818%

Kolkata Knight Riders613%

Deccan Chargers511%

Kings XI Punjab49%

Mumbai Indians24%

Royal Challengers Banglore12%

Out of 45 polls only 8 guessed the winner correctly :)

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