BRAND IPL

As the new IPL season is going to start in few more weeks, it made me to remember one of the incidents happened during the last IPL.

As I was taking an evening walk, noticed one of my colleague who lives in the same gated community, he too going for a walk. I greeted him how come he is seen at the wrong time. He replied saying that he could not bear the tension of the IPL match final and he just came down to relax. The moment I heard that statement from him I realized that brand IPL has arrived in a big way.

IPL was started in competition to the other league which was born from the roots of 2007 debacle in the world cup. But the way IPL was packed and branded it took over the viewer ship from the prime time soap operas to cricket. Film releases postponed, soap operas had changed their timings, people had rescheduled their appointments etc. For me this is the next revolution after kerry packer of the 70's. With colored clothing, white balls night cricket started with a bang was a huge success. World series cricket was played for next 30 years in this format.

IPL Packaging is done with the backing of some of big industrial houses and mixing Bollywood and cricket has taken this brand to a different level. The amount of cricketing exposure to the young talents is enormous and this results are already started shown in other forms of cricket. Twenty twenty started on an experimentation basis but now it is the piece de resistance of all forms of cricket. This may not go well with some pundits and purists and also Test cricket fans but we have to welcome the change in pace of the game.

The founder of the twenty twenty format yesterday said that T20 is only an appetizer and it should not be be over done. This is the game of this century and I wish a very good luck for the IPL3.......