The Big IPL Mess

For 3 Years now the IPL has dazzled us, entertained us and thrilled us but, for me the IPL rollercoaster is becoming tiresome.

When the IPL first started I was as excited as everyone else, even paying for a subscription to Setanta so I could watch all the games. It all started off so well when Brendon McCullum blasted his way to an incredible 147 which capped off a brilliant opening night for the IPL. The rest of the tournament continued to dazzle with new stars being born in the dazzling spotlight of the IPL. The inaugural tournament even had the much loved underdog story when the Rajasthan Royals beat the Chennai Super Kings with a thrilling last-ball win in the final. Rajasthan had started the tournament as rank outsiders having not spent as much money as some of the all-star lineups such as the Kolkata Knight Riders. They instead decided to put their faith in their young Indian players and under the brilliant leadership of Shane Warne they created history as the inaugural IPL winners. This brings me onto my next point…

The IPL has recently announced the scrapping of two sides from the IPL. These teams are the King’s XI Punjab and the aforementioned Rajasthan Royals. In my opinion the IPL cannot continue this sort of activity if it wants to be considered one of crickets most important tournaments. Before this there was the Lalit Modi fiasco and for me this is the final straw. When the IPL started one of the biggest problems that I saw on the global scale was getting people from outside of India to be able to identify with a team and therefore gaining a global fan base. By winning the inaugural tournament as underdogs Rajasthan had gained a fan base outside of India, they were the team I supported anyway. Last year they also took a big step by creating the first global sporting alliance with Hampshire and Trinidad & Tobago. This gave the Royals a true global fan base.

Now not only is the IPL losing one of its most popular and globally supported teams, it is also losing the inaugural winners which in my opinion is a massive blow to the history of the IPL. This is equivalent to the ECB banishing Yorkshire from playing in the County Championship, just imagine the most successful side ever to have played county cricket no longer there, it would devalue the competition. This is exactly how the IPL will feel now that Rajasthan and Kings XI are no longer there.