Why the IPL is still a waste of time

IPL cheerleaders

At the risk of being called a heretic, I’m going to go ahead and say it: the IPL is a gigantic waste of time.

Oh, wait, that already happened.

As a country, we’re clearly very emotional and passionate about third rate cricket masquerading as a global tournament, or, as I like to call it, the IPL. But one wonders if the IPL has done Indian cricket more harm than good. From a purely financial point of view, the IPL is the best thing that has happened to cricketers since World Series Cricket. Choosing a career in sport isn’t as lucrative as one would think: For every player rolling in the green stuff, there are 10 others who are only rolling in green stuff while fielding. Then the IPL came along and solved that problem. For those who dared to dream and fell short, it was an affirmation of the choice they had made.

The IPL is ostensibly about promoting young talent in India. International superstars share the dressing room with the best young talents in the country; they would have us believe that the likes of Unmukt Chand will become better players just by watching Shane Watson lace up his shoes. But Chand hasn’t gotten a game this season, has he?

He’s been practicing his bench warming skills, though. The IPL is a tournament, and everybody wants to win; therefore, pragmatism comes to the forefront. Every team wants their heavy hitters out there facing and bowling as many deliveries as possible. I mean, sure, domestic players fit in there somewhere, only because the BCCI hasn’t petitioned the ICC to allow 7-a-side cricket, yet. The quality of cricket isn’t as engaging or engrossing as it’s professed to be, either, and that isn’t an indictment of the T20 format; the recent India-South Africa game was a classic.

It goes to the skewness of the player distribution. Often, passages of play are reminiscent of the Heavyweight Champion of the world facing a newcomer in the cruiserweight division. There is chasm of quality the width of the Amazon River between some of the players. It doesn’t make for very compelling cricket when there isn’t a modicum of competition. For all the good the IPL has supposedly done in promoting and producing young talent, not one unknown performer has taken the IPL by storm and translated that success onto the international or domestic stage.

The domestic players who have done well have also put in the hard yards on the domestic circuit; the IPL was the launching pad that catapulted them nowhere. There is a sense that the IPL will damage the future well-being of Indian Cricket. Young players will be swayed by the allure of money and the big shiny lights and consequently lost to first-class cricket. Why would they want to play a series of pointless games on dead wickets over a whole season with nobody watching when they can do the same thing in the IPL over 6 weeks?

It is worth noting that players who have done well in first-class cricket can make the switch to T20 cricket, but those who only play T20 cricket are out of their depth and out of their league while playing the other formats. They say that if you can’t do something right the first time, try, try and try again. The organizers have clearly taken this advice to heart, as, in relative terms, the IPL seems to last longer than Yuvraj Singh’s infamous 11.

The comparisons don’t end there. You keep waiting for something spectacular to happen, and it doesn’t; when it finally ends, the overriding emotion is ‘relief’. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the IPL is a gigantic waste of time.