Indian Premier League, better known as IPL, has been considered the biggest annual celebration of cricket across the world. People go crazy for the matches, brands go crazy for sponsorships. However, something is different this year.
It’s almost the end of April, and IPL is already in its second half. Every team has played seven or more matches and yet, for a lot of people including me, it barely feels like that time of the year. There is barely any excitement and enthusiasm. The statistics, however, tell a different story—the first week of the tournament was record-breaking in terms of viewership, seeing a 26 percent hike compared to last year. Still, something feels off.
To explore the reasons, firstly there is a clear reduction in star power. Pat Cummins missed the first 7 games, Rohit Sharma has been injured for a few matches, Mitchell Starc was missing for the first half, and the biggest crowd drawer of all MS Dhoni hasn’t played a single match so far. This has led to some fans losing their incentive to watch.
The evolving game of T20, becoming faster paced and more explosive, can also be a contributor. The frequency of 200+ scores in the league has skyrocketed for the past 2 years. Last year it was something new, hence it seemed interesting to watch. This year, however, it’s just the ‘new normal’ as 17 of the first 35 matches this season had a 200+ score.
The Impact Player rule is one of the things to blame for this. It is a possibility that people are just missing the good old days where 170+ was an extremely respectable score and anything above 200 used to be the golden standard.
Moreover, the season so far has lacked nail-biting finishes. Only six of the first 35 matches were won in the last three balls, or with a margin of five or less runs.
IPL remains as big a cash cow as ever. Viewership is good, tickets are still selling out and advertisers are still throwing just as much money. We found new Indian stars like Mukul Choudhary, Praful Hinge etc, with previous discoveries like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre continuing to impress us. Yet, something feels off.
A lot of people I know have stopped watching every match, you don’t see yesterday night’s match as the centre of every conversation anymore. It is different for the die-hard ones and it always will be.
It is true that a portion of fans drift away from the sport every year, and new fans fall in love with the sport, taking their place. So, it is possible that the situation above is just how the fans drifting away feel.
A good portion of fans will just shrug it off saying “nah, it’s still the same”, but times have changed, and some parts of the audience haven’t. Henceforth, for a lot of people, this IPL doesn’t feel like IPL.
Bitanu Roy Choudhury is a student of Avinash College of Commerce. Views are personal.
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