Will the charm continue?

IPL Fever

Cheer-filled sessions in front of the television with teeth-gritting excitement are going to be back.

It is going to be two whole months of rivalry at its peak. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is into its successful fifth season and cricket fans can hardly ask for more.

The beginning is set to be signalled with the grand IPL auction due to be held in the City on February 4.

With the number of teams and matches increasing with every season, cricket fans now have a two-month long calender to fill up their IPL yearnings.

The fate of the ‘Kochi Tuskers’ remains undecided and so does the composition of the participating teams.

At this juncture, Metrolife asked cricket fanatics the pertinent question as to whether the charm of the format is wearing off and has it become monotonous?
“IPL is far from turning monotonous. It is three hours of entertainment and you get to see players from around the world more often,” says Sindhu Bharadwaj, a senior software engineer.

“The change I’d expect to see in IPL 5 though would be some team, other than the ‘Chennai Super Kings’, win. It would be nice to see the ‘Royal Challengers Bangalore’ win for a change,” she adds, also admitting that focussing on the game this time around would perhaps be a good idea.

There are others who believe that IPL in its many seasons has been increasingly shifting focus from the actual game, disturbing the sentiments of many a true sports lover in the process.

“IPL is turning monotonous in a way. But, at the end of the day, we are a cricket crazy nation and when the action heightens, many will end up tuning in. Personally, being a cricket fan, I feel IPL has too many teams and there is too much attention on other things besides the sport. Cheerleaders and parties work for entertainment, not for the sport,” says Naveen Raman, a marketing professional.

Too many teams and too many matches seem to be the most common complaint of every IPL viewer. Most people though agree that the current format is the only one that would work in a tournament of this sort. “The problem with IPL is that you get too much of it. It comes every year, lasts two months and has several matches in a single day. There are two things which I feel must change in IPL 5, the frequency of the tournament and the duration of the matches. The format in itself is quite interesting,” says Aditya Bhola, a software engineer with Accenture.

Among the fans of the sport, who despise all things that divert attention from cricket and those who feel two months is too long for a tournament, there are those like Ansar Ali, who can’t wait for the action to start.

“I am waiting for April 4. I see nothing wrong with the format or the duration of the tournament. I think everything including the frequency, the cheerleaders and the parties should be retained in IPL 5,” says Ansar, who works as a materials manager at a five-star hotel in the City.