IPL has become the University of World Cricket: AB de Villiers
Image Courtesy: © IPL
Heaping praise on the IPL, which is into its ninth year, AB de Villiers called it “the University of world cricket” and likened it to “an MBA in cricket”. The batting great, who plays for RCB, also remarked that he learns more in the 8 weeks of the event than in the other 44 weeks of the year.
In an exclusive column in the Hindu, de Villiers talked about how the league has more substance than the sky-high salaries and the jazz surrounding it. “When people talk about the IPL, they almost always refer to the player salaries and the razzamatazz; and, in both these areas, the league has taken cricket to a new level, presenting the game in a way that has not been done before, creating a platform for players to receive market-related remuneration,” he said.
Arguably the finest batsman of this generation, ABD also added that he learns “more during each IPL than in the other 44 weeks of the year.”
De Villiers called attention on the world-class on and off-field standards set by the league in calling it an “MBA in cricket”. “The experience of being surrounded by world-class players day after day, match after match, and taking the opportunity to meet them, talk to them and watch them go about their business amounts to nothing more and nothing less than a top-class education. It’s like taking an MBA in cricket.
“Best practice is everywhere: it’s in the warm-up drills and the way individual batsmen and bowlers prepare for a match; it’s in the field placings at the start, in the middle and at the end of each game, it’s in the ever-evolving tactics and strategies of T20 cricket; it’s in the way players overcome the challenges of travel, it’s in the way players interact with the media, engage with supporters and calmly embrace the necessity of photo shoots and commercial appearances,” he said in the column in the Hindu.
The Proteas Test and ODI skipper also elaborated on his personal learnings from the league saying, “From a personal perspective, it’s hard to exaggerate how much I have benefitted from being involved in nine editions of the IPL, getting to know the likes of Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Stephen Fleming, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli and others, seeing them perform first-hand, often as teammates, spending so much time with them after matches, listening to them talk about the game, just chatting about life in general, sharing experiences and knowledge.”
