The IPL Was Never About Cricket And I Hope It Never Is

It was a roster of stars. Cricketers, yes, but stars first. Bollywood, too. They were everywhere, part of the IPL back when it first started in 2008.

I can never forget the razzle dazzle. Shah Rukh Khan, Preity G Zinta (now ex-boyfriend Ness Wadia in tow), Juhi Chawla, The Ambanis, Lalit Modi before he got cancelled, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and the many others who showed up in the stands and boxes. It could have been a Bollywood awards show.

There were the cheerleaders. The anthems and the jingles. Snazzily shot music videos. SRK screaming ‘Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo’ in a Manish Malhotra jersey. And who can ever forget those opening ceremony performances? There isn’t an A-lister who didn’t participate.

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The IPL was never about cricket. It was always about entertainment. That is why it got those star owners and those dance performances. The organisers wanted viewership, they wanted a package. They were never in it to elevate the game; they wanted to revamp it instead: make it exciting, enticing. From where I come, the intention was always to take cricket and turn it into something that everyone could enjoy—even those who weren’t enthusiasts. Isn’t it the rule of the market? Once you’ve exhausted a set of consumers, you can’t grow further if you keep targeting the same audience. It’s the same with cricket as it is with refrigerators.

You’ve got to spice up the game—for the IPL is the sport’s melange. Make it interesting for a whole new generation, and their parents who perhaps didn’t know anything about the game beyond Sachin Tendulkar. It wasn’t ever about those purists—they can happily watch the five-day game and soak in the game’s purity to the fullest. But what’s the point if no one’s watching? And everybody tuned in to watch the IPL. They’re still watching it, year after year. It’s been 18 years now—the IPL is of legal age and I’m hoping it’s going to get louder, bigger and better.

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Screaming crowds, on-field tussles, fights to the finish—where else do you get such an adrenaline rush? I’ve watched the game live in stadiums and at home and it never fails to get me going. Just last year, when RCB managed to sneak into the playoffs defeating CSK, no less—was pure cinema.

Here’s to this fabulous tournament. May it stay long enough on our screens and continue to give us that popcorn entertainment we’ve come to adore. We want glamour, we want pageantry. If Kohli and Gambhir have it out on the field again, we’d be hooting and how. The IPL was never about cricket, it was everything else. May it never change course.

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