Where do I start? Indians like to celebrate every chance they get. I’m quite sure the number of Indian festivals is more than the number of days in a year! There’s Diwali, Holi, Baisakhi, Independence Day, Republic Day, Christmas, Eid, the list goes on.
But there is one celebration that triumphs over all the others. It’s not official holiday but everyone loves it, it is the Indian Premier league.
I must be honest, the idea for this article wasn’t completely mine, the advertisement campaign for the tournament inspired me, and it says “India ka tyohaar” which means India’s festival.
Personally, I like the Mumbai Indians. Why? Even I don’t know. Although I am patriotic to my city so let’s include the Delhi Daredevils as well (can you be patriotic to a city?). So let’s try and find out why it’s so popular and find justification for the statement “India ka Tyohaar”.
Be warned, this piece is going to be much longer than my usual ones. This is because I’m going to write this one over a longer period of time.
The 8th year of the tournament started about two weeks ago and lasts for six weeks.
There is our first point, it lasts only a month and a half. Leaving the audience wanting more is always a good move. Once the tournament ends, everyone wants it to go on for longer and hence wait eagerly for another year to pass. If you make it too long then the people will eventually get bored and not watch the season.
The same formula applies with the format of the game, it’s only 20 overs. Short and exciting, it’s over in a matter of only three hours. Doesn’t waste too much of your time and entertains you more than the other longer tournaments like the ICC World Cup, which comes once in every four years. And we have found our second point!
The IPL takes place once a year, they do leave the people waiting but not for so long that they forget about it. The ICC World Cup takes place once every four years; ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC T20 World Cup come once every two years. People tend to forget about these tournaments. But I guess these are much more imperial championships.
Getting back to something I mentioned a bit earlier, the format of the gentlemen’s game. Although the way the players play in the IPL, isn’t exactly the definition of “gentlemen”, and that’s our next point.
The batsman bat so ruthlessly it’s amazing, there is one boundary almost every over and at least once or twice in a game, one over is hit for more than 20 runs! There is a rumour that the IPL has fixed winners and the whole game has been premeditated. I believe, but don’t believe it as well. This is because, according to me, the winners aren’t premeditated although the players are told to take the game down to the wire. Now, keep this in mind that this is completely my opinion and I have no proof, so don’t go on telling people that I know what happens (although, please tell other people about my blog, that would be good).
If the game goes on till the last over, chances are that it will be really exciting, just like the match between the Delhi Daredevils and the Sunrisers Hyderabad, it was so mind churning towards the last few overs, that anyone would have bitten their nails off.
Remember how I said this article is going to be longer than my normal pieces, I take that back, because I wrote another 400 words and even I got bored reading it! So I’ll apply the same formula as the IPL, the article is going to be short and exciting.
Just one more thing, don’t forget that the IPL is presented like a domestic tournament but in actuality it isn’t, they use the parts most populated and cricket loving parts and strategically make teams.
I’ll end it here now, so you don’t get bored. Do please like, comment and share. If you didn’t like this piece or have an opinion you would like to share with me, this is my email ID- Vidurb2001@gmail.com.
(Vidur Bahl is a 14-year-old fan and follower of the game. He often shares his views on The Quint.)
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