The biggest difference between County Cricket and Indian Premier League (IPL) is that the former offers a chance to those cricketers to play who are already in their national team, while the latter gives players an opportunity to perform and find a berth in the national squad. Apart from this, the IPL gives players a good chance to earn huge amounts of prize money and get attractive and lucrative endorsements. The IPL’s reach is tremendous by virtue of its visibility through media, social media and live-streaming on mobile phones. County Cricket has, therefore, vanished away from even the print media
Because of Covid-19, BCCI has notified that the IPL champion team will now receive Rs 10 crore only instead of a whopping Rs 20 crore. “The financial rewards have been reworked as a part of the cost-cutting measures. The champions will get Rs 10 crore instead of Rs 20 crore. The runners-up will get Rs 6.25 crore instead of earlier amount of Rs 12.5 crore,” a BCCI notification said.
“The entire world is coping with the crisis. Football and cricket matches are being conducted in empty stadiums globally. We will also have to accept that reality,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said. This financial constraint is the result of the pandemic, which is affecting all sporting events including the IPL. Former Ranji player, Dronacharya awardee and cricket coach of Virat Kohli, Raj Kumar Sharma spoke to The Daily Guardian on the popularity of IPL. He claimed that IPL is the biggest platform/ event in world cricket. He said that the IPL is considered even greater than the Ashes series or the World Cup. Sharma sees many reasons behind it.
“First of all, it is watched worldwide. It has the largest audience on and off the ground. It has great contribution for the cricket game,” he said. According to Sharma, IPL has been the best platform for talented batsmen like K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shubhman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat and also for the upcoming fast bowlers like Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. They are giving outstanding performance, Sharma said. “And the most important thing is that a cricketer can find the place directly in the national team by just playing IPL and performing well.”
He further adds that this T-20 format is not good for the spinners because they can’t give so much flight, loop or can’t do some experiment with their bowling as in this short format of the game a spinner has to prove his ability in merely four overs. Cricket coach Mohammed Tahir said that the concept of IPL has been adopted from English Premier League (football tournament). Moreover, cricket in India or in Asian countries is like a festival or religion. In the early 1980s, we had very little cricket in India, so we were desperate to play in English County or Club Cricket in England, he said. Gone are the days when we used to follow County Cricket, now we are getting all the exposure through IPL, Tahir added.
“That was the era of great bowlers. In the format from Test Match to ODI and now T-20 the batsman dominates the game.” He said that this T-20 game is the greatest entertainer, and the cricket fans across the world are following it with so much craze. “Undoubtedly, this IPL has become so popular among the cricketing fraternity and brings name, fame, money and glamour altogether on a single platform,” he said. If you are a cricket lover then don’t miss the opportunity to watch the most popular cricketing event IPL.
The writer is Bureau Chief of Nepal based Himalini Magazine & also Founder of Creatives World Media Academy