IPL 2018: First-ever elements that enrich the season

With cricket been in news widely for all wrong reasons in the recent times, the gentlemen's game is in need of a positive take-off. What better to bring back the game in news for good reasons than with the uncrowned king of leagues - Indian Premier League.

The latest edition of IPL is about to get started in few days with its typical grandeur. Unlike the previous editions, the upcoming 11th edition of the tournament is transfigured to some extent. The fresh practices of the upcoming season are as follows:

---

#1 Decision Review System (DRS)

Improving the quality of judgment

In a tournament where the prime talents clash, the margin for error should be as minimal as possible. Sensing the need, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) became the first T20 tournament to use the DRS during the play-off stages long back in 2017.

With the amount of money that the IPL deals with, there is no reason to avoid spending some on technology to limit the umpiring errors. Following the footsteps of PSL in a positive manner, the upcoming season of IPL will have DRS where each team will get one review per innings. The technologies to be used will be the same as in international games - the Ultra Edge and ball-tracking. Implementation of DRS will help to improve the quality of judgment towards supremacy.

#2 Virtual Reality Technology

Experience gets better with VR

This is the most exciting facet of the season. The game with the push of technology can be presented in the best possible way to the wide range of audiences. Only handful of world popular games have incorporated the Virtual Reality technology in broadcasting (seldom, though).

The upcoming season will have VRT cameras installed at the stadium to add another dimension to the viewing experience of fans far from the stadium. The real experience of the game will be realized with this latest style of broadcasting. All that viewer has to do is visit Hotstar and put on the VR box for this new feel. The ones who do not wish to buy VR box can just visit Hotstar, pause the streaming game and view the things around (360°) in that particular snapshot.

#3 Only two captains at the opening ceremony

One of the opening ceremonies from the past

The opening ceremony, which usually happens on the night before the first match of the tournament (except last year where it happened in each of the eight venues), now happens at Mumbai on the evening of the first match itself (April 7).

The ten-year-old ceremony also had a custom of presenting skippers of all the IPL franchises who took the 'Spirit Of Cricket' pledge. This season's ceremony, owing to logistical issues, will only have two captains Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni whose teams clash that night. This is because on April 8, the day after the opening ceremony, Delhi Daredevils will be taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali at 4 p.m. while RCB will meet KKR in Kolkata at 8 p.m. Since the captains of respective teams will not be able to reach their respective venues earlier for the practice of next day's game, their presence in the first day event will deliberately be avoided.

However, it is now said that the captains will be called in for a shoot on the day before the ceremony to do the necessary ritual that will be telecast on the evening of the opening day celebration.