A retrospective look at IPL’s success

With the IPL counting 17 seasons, we can safely now look back at its origins or how it started and reach some meaningful conclusions as to what has actually accounted for its massive success and popularity. It’s been a lot of years now and we have more than enough sample material to work with if we want to better understand how the IPL made T20 the fastest-growing cricket format in the world and also how it rolled out an entire growth plan for cricket, even in places where the sport wasn’t really considered all that popular.

The IPL is at the heart of every cricket fan, including those fans who have a more hard-core or traditionalist perspective on the sport. It is a post-modern version of cricket, with far less time required for a match to come to an end and far more cricketing skills being demonstrated by players, in a far more compressed game time.

The dynamic version has been an absolute hit among bettors as well, especially as T20 matches are gaining momentum on bookmakers’ websites and online cricket betting in India -as it also happens in every part of the world where cricket is played- experiences a surge in demand.

In a few words, IPL has revealed a new face of cricket. One that is able to overcome the boredom caused by the long-lasting cricket matches, the fatigue of players who end up battling to showcase their capabilities on the pitch, and of course the indifference of audiences, which have no reason -other than their love for the sport- to extend their interest over a game that is likely to stretch their patience.

Nearly 16 years have now passed since the launch of the Indian Premier League. Back in 2008, when the league was first introduced, there was much skepticism as to whether it would manage to get the public’s attention or even if the main body of cricket fans would ever accept such a new, radically different format. But ever since the first match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore was on, the audiences went crazy! And from that time, the IPL got to be bigger, the teams got to be wealthier and the T20 format got to be more popular both among fans and among punters, who would rush into online cricket betting sites to wager on upcoming, blockbuster matches.

Looking back makes one wonder what has been so amazing with the IPL, that spurred all the success. Well, for one thing, the success is partly attributed to the format itself, which got rid of any deficiencies -inherent in the traditional cricket format – and made it more easily ‘consumed’ by the average fan. After all, cricket is not only for the hard-core followers of the sport. It is -and it should be- for the more casual fans as well.

But it’s not only the new format. The IPL organization has done an amazing job at blending sports with entertainment and mixing celebrities, star cricket players, spectacle, and brands all into one place: the cricket game!

That said, cricket is no longer only about cricket. It is about having fun, being mesmerized by celebrities in the kick-off of the season performing live at pre-game ceremonies, watching world-class players in the field unraveling their skills, chasing after unique moments of batting, bowling and fielding, or celebrating the parade of brands, being promoted under a very stylish marketing strategy, which in the end puts together sports and big commercial names, like TATA.

For some people, this kind of blending drives cricket away from what it should be or its essence, but for the most part, cricket has been rejuvenated with IPL. And today, it’s not only that cricket -and more correctly T20 cricket- has managed to re-capture the interest of the fans that it had once lost or attract the interest of fans who had never been particularly fond of the traditional version of the sport, but it has also achieved the ultimate objective of the ICC: to make cricket a more global sport. To make cricket known in places where people don’t play the game and trigger their interest in what will hopefully, one day, will become a truly widespread event.