India

Has anything happened in the IPL yet?

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No, nothing has yet happened in the IPL.

Matches have been played, teams have won, teams have lost, but nothing of any importance has taken place.

Teams who have won a match are probably about one-seventh of the way to a play-off place. If you are excited about a particular team being one-seventh of the way to a play-off place, you must be a really huge fan of one of the brands.

We say ‘brand’ because the branding is the only real constant. The teams themselves are almost entirely different to 2010 because they held another auction.

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23 comments

  3. The Pune IPL team first took to the field. I may be biased, but they have this under-rated class about them – Ryder, G Smith, Yuvraj and Uthappa.

    I also liked the traditional saree-clad cheerleaders – best ever!

  6. What is the IPL all about?

    Who cares about it? Indian fans in the Cities with teams? Overseas cricket fans?

    What kudos does any performance have?

    Do we rush to that section of our 2011 Wisdens to re-live last years games? Should it even be in Wisden?

    Where does it fit? Above the WC? Below it? Above ODI’s? Above domestic T20 competitions? Alongside the Champions League?

    Noticed that they record the number of 30’s batsmen score. Will we see dot balls recorded for the bowlers next?

    Looks like a huge pay-off for the overseas players involved. But Morgan should be playing for Middlesex and Ten Deschoate for Essex.

    KC, you call them Brands; I don’t think they have developed nearly enough to be called Brands. What are their brand values? What does each brand stand for? What image does each project?

    To me, they are names and no more.

    Aghhh. Feel better now I’ve said all that!

    2. I like Miriam’s comment in the article you linked to. That’s the spirit in which one has to watch the IPL. Well, I don’t follow it, but I do look at cricinfo scores and watch the occasional highlights. It takes a lot of effort to put together something like that and I am happy this is one of the few sites that doesn’t indulge in constant IPL bashing – though looking at some of the comments here, that would be hard to guess.

      Lara’s parting words to his home crowd were “Have I entertained you?”, and not “Did you like my technically flawless cover-drives?”. Sport is supposed to entertain people, and as long as the IPL does that, just let it be. If it doesn’t fit into your definition of “cricket”, then so be it.

    3. We genuinely like the IPL – that’s half our stance.

      The other half revolves around it being laughable that people might believe it to be the future of cricket.

  7. I like Deccan at this stage. They are definitely the most watchable ‘brand’ as all of the other team strips hurt my eyes.

  8. Good link KC.

    An interesting list of brand qualities/values.

    At least someone, albeit a fan is thinking about their personality.

    A lot of the ‘brand’ opportunity is, or isn’t in the name.

    Why Chargers?

    Why Knight Riders? Are the discos open late??? Do they all go on Harley Davidson runs in the small hours?

    etc etc.

    Same as the County names. Yorkshire Phoenix. What was all that about. Who rose up? Hirst and Rhodes?

    Carnegie is obvious but in it’s way, equally obscure as a branding link. Andrew???

  9. To me, the IPL is a bit like Top Gear. I don’t like any of the presenters, I’m not particularly interested in the main subject matter and I think it’s all a bit tacky and pander-ish.

    But it’s really not important enough to moan about. And I do always find something in there that’s entertaining though. Like Shane Warne completely taking international batsmen for a ride within an over. Or that time C***kson ended up in a Vietnamese monsoon on a moped.

  11. Don’t really care about IPL, but until the last one I was half heartedly supporing Mumbai. Now that Pune has a team of their own, I am not sure whom to lend my half hearted support

    1. Divide it. Give Pune a quarter of your support, Mumbai a quarter and then let the unused half languish in the pit of your bowel.

  13. Did I really just see flames shoot up from beyond the advertising-covered boundary rope when someone hit a “DLF Maximum less two” or whatever the hell they’ve renamed a four?

  14. You know, I was really warming up to the IPL last season. The teams had developed personalities and fan bases, rivalries were getting established, you knew which teams to hate (Deccan and Punjab for me), and it was generally looking like a proper cricket tournament rather than a circus. It helped that I supported Bangalore whose sole strategy was to blast out opposition batsmen with that weapon of mass destruction called Dale Steyn.

    Then they had to go ahead and reshuffle the teams. Where is Kallis? Where is Steyn? Why is Rahul Dravid playing for Rajasthan? Now I can’t be bothered with the IPL. Thank you BCCI.

    1. Everything’s so short-term. You’re expected to instantly feel something for a team and they’re also terrified that your attention will waver if nothing changes for five minutes.

      Completely misses the point of supporting a sports team in our opinion.

    2. The beginning of the end of my following the NHL was when Wayne Grezky was traded from Edmonton to LA. It seemed like after that the teams started shuffling players, *during the season*, like a deck of cards. I didn’t know who was where, suddenly hated opposition players were on your favourite team, and the favourite players from your team were playing for your despised rivals. I found it difficult to care any more.

    3. I don’t know if I will care, but in case things become interesting I will support Chennai – only because they are the only team that’s still recognizable. Also because they have a swagger about them. I like swagger.

  15. That shuffling of players is on the up in our cricket here, it seems to me.

    Just as I’ve got used to the line-ups in some counties, its as if they’ve realised it and said, let’s confuse that bloke in Oldham again.

    In Gloucestershire’s case, it’s ‘Get Gidman’s brother in, send that Porterfield off up North, and release our fast bowlers to Somerset; that’ll get Oldham man going!!!’.

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