BBC Inside Sport looks at IPL

[Guest Hiten.]

IPL is trying to inject regionalism (when it comes to cricket) and is still at its infancy. It certainly will take time for these franchises to milk some money out of this competition. Tickets might be given as complimentary but people are certainly glued to TV whenever the IPL games start (both in India and outside India). Here in Canada, all of my university friends (mostly brown) are discussing/following IPL heavily. Indian cricket board has certainly tried something out of the norm in cricket, i.e. franchise based leagues. You need courage to start something that is deviant. They will have to bear some loses here and there but their only source of money (imo) are sponsor(s). IPL has already been paid 1 billion dollars over television rights for the period of 10 years. Sponsors have showed up in large numbers and you cannot ask for a better start than this. Just like you cannot expect a newcomer's movie to hit silver jubilee (atleast in Indian cinema); you cannot expect India's dearly sport to be hit whose theme is city-based.

[Sachinism]

Part 1 [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OhnOgG_0Go]YouTube - BBC Inside Sport looks at IPL[/ame] Part 2 [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR53zdzC3Vo]YouTube - BBC Inside Sport looks at IPL[/ame]

[Guest Hiten.]

Thanks a lot dude :)

[Gambit]

Great video pjilka! I liked how frank Oram and KP were.

[ludhianvi]

neat video, will look at it. But aren't the stadiums full at most games? Then how can there be low interest

[Sachinism]

Part 2 added

[ludhianvi]

Part 2 added

thanks, perfect timing, just finished watching part one:two_thumbs_up:

[Guest Hiten.]

Brilliant article by Soumya Bhattacharya. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/350140.html

But I noticed something afterwards. When discussing the game with people, I kept saying "Kolkata got clobbered", rather than "We got clobbered". "We" is what I'd always say when talking about the Indian cricket team. When it comes to the IPL - and me watching it - the line between the fan and his team hasn't yet got blurred. It's very early days yet.

IPL needs time and we ought to give that to them for it to prosper.

[bobbydhillon]

in india only football can fill stadiums other than international cricket. i grew up in delhi and for football games ambedkar stadium used to full house for calcutta and punjab games but local cricket games hardly anybody , we used to sometime c cricket games from ambedhkar stadium. feroz shah and ambedkar staduim are connected. but with time iam sure ipl would be huge and i hope too. inface i havnt followed cricket games so closely lately like ipl, infact i am looking farward to everygame everyday.

[Guest Hiten.]

in india only football can fill stadiums other than international cricket. i grew up in delhi and for football games ambedkar stadium used to full house for calcutta and punjab games but local cricket games hardly anybody , we used to sometime c cricket games from ambedhkar stadium. feroz shah and ambedkar staduim are connected.

That is because Indian national soccer team hardly plays soccer (in India) and even if they does then hardly anyone bothers going to it. Cricket was presented as country-based to our masses and this is the reason why city-based cricket does not lure more audiences.