Truthful Tuesday | IPL can very well exist without the presence of overseas players
Could the Indian Premier League (IPL) survive without any overseas cricketers, or, without stars from across the world, would it just be a glorified Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy? In this edition of ‘Truthful Tuesday’, we break the topic down and unravel the truth.
If you’re a living, breathing human being in this world at the moment, it is not the prettiest time to be alive - human interaction is barred, doors are being locked, entire countries are being locked down, borders are being sealed and airports are being shut. And if you belong to that population that uses Sport as a getaway from reality, it sucks, for not only have you been starved of sporting action for the past 15 days, but you’re also potentially looking at a three-month window where no sporting activity will be possible whatsoever.
And in that tiny population, if you’re a part of the minority that often looks forward to the Indian Premier League (IPL) filling the void in your heart during summers, it is fair to by now, you must have come to the realization that the only IPL action you’re going to get this season is the highlights packages on Star Sports that are being aired all day everyday. Not only is India on the verge of entering the dreaded ‘Stage 3’ of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the travel restrictions posed by governments across the world means that even if the BCCI miraculously manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat and stage a somewhat-abridged season, it is likely that this edition of the tournament will not oversee foreign participation, at least not the big stars.
So, in the hypothetical scenario that the tournament does indeed go on without the presence of any foreign cricketers, where does this leave us? Will it be just another i’m-sick-and-tired-and-emotionally-drained-by-seeing-matches-everyday T20 tournament that no one but consumers of fantasy cricket will be interested about? Will it be a glorified Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with better commentary, coverage and played on better grounds, featuring your Kohlis and Rohits and Dhonis? The hoi polloi might think so. And, make no mistake, there is every reason to believe that it will indeed be the case - by removing the top overseas cricketers, you’re considerably ratcheting down the quality and making it one-dimensional. But the popularity, enormity and the augustness of the IPL extend beyond any player or franchise; it is a celebration of the highest order where the show goes on, grand as ever, no matter who or what is missing. A juggernaut, you can call it.
As much as we hate to admit, the tournament simply does not rely on foreign cricketers to make it the spectacle it is. Not anymore, at least. If the presence of the best players in the world is all that’s needed to make a T20 tournament appealing and captivating, today, we would be speaking of the Bangladesh Premier League at the same level as the IPL. In the 2018/19 season, the quarter of AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Steve Smith and David Warner all featured in the BPL and yet the recently concluded DY Patil exhibition T20 cup attracted more attention than Bangladesh’s T20 extravaganza ever has managed to do.
The IPL has grown beyond the boundaries of individuals and has created an identity for itself, something that is still a distant dream for even the biggest leagues across sports. Take both Messi and Ronaldo away from the La Liga - one of which has already come true - and the league’s viewership will drop by more than half; Take Kohli and Dhoni away and the IPL will do just about fine.
CG Kid, a popular YouTuber and a former drug addict who is now six years sober, narrates his drug experiences in videos for awareness purposes, has an interesting take on addiction: he believes that more than the product itself, it’s the ritual that drags the victim into addiction and keeps them in the loop; a muscle memory that they just cannot do away with. To the fans, the IPL is no different. It’s the rituals involved that sucks them into the tournament.
They know that for two months in their city, for every 2 kilometers, they are going to see posters and hoardings of their favourite stars. They know that for two months, they could come back from a long, hard day at work, turn on the telly and fill their hearts with some wholesome cricketing action that will keep them on the edge of their seats. They know that for two months, the only chatter they will have with their co-workers is praising and lambasting players and discussing over coffee who to pick in their fantasy teams. They know that for two months, they have an escape from reality and as long as the pathway for the same is provided, they don’t really care about the actual product. In this case, the presence of overseas players doesn’t really matter; as long as the ritual exists, the people will get addicted to it.
But this is just one facet. There are also the other criminally underrated aspects which includes the unbounded connection between the fans and the franchises, and the popularity of the Indian cricketers amongst the faithful. In many cases, the fans are so intravenously connected to the clubs they support that me or you could literally don the shirt of the franchise tomorrow and be encouraged and cheered on as if we’re the best in the world. Take the example of Chennai Super Kings: despite the club going on a two-year hiatus and losing several players from its original core, the fans stayed loyal to the team, treated them like family and cheered them on to the title. Would we have witnessed all this in a tournament that revolves around the players and the players alone? Perhaps not.
And maybe, just maybe, somewhere in the midst of the Gayle storm and the AB blitz and the Warner brilliance, we have failed to acknowledge the impact the Indian players have had on the tournament. 7 of the top 10 highest run-scorers in the tournament are Indians; 7 of the top 10 highest wicket-takers in the tournament are Indians and 9 of the 12 times, the IPL trophy has been lifted by an Indian captain. In fact, David Warner is the only non-Indian skipper to lift the title since the start of the last decade. At the end of the day, it’s still MS Dhoni who makes people turn up in thousands to just witness him practice and it’s still Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma who make fans take sides and wage verbal wars in the months of April and May.
Perhaps, that is also one of the reasons the organizers are pushing to fit in the tournament, in spite of the possibility of not being able to accommodate overseas players, for they know that nothing will change - hundreds of people will still turn up to just catch a glimpse of their favourite team’s bus; thousands will be arguing with their mates over the controversial call in the final over and millions will be watching the action unfold. All this while, we’ve been under the impression that it’s the overseas cricketers who constitute the cake, but they’re not; they are nothing more than the cherry on the top.
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