Many enthusiastic cricket fans in India have already started down count for the inaugural match of Indian Premier League. With the involvement of corporate moghuls, filmstars and having so much money at stake obviously there will be a lot of expectations and curiosity. But there are a few instances skepticism also and majority of them are not valid.

–>Twenty20 format is not cricket:
Cricket or not cricket, it’s a competitive sport and winner will be decided in 3 hours. I think these people want cricket to remain as a boring game in which it takes 5 days to decide a winner. Twenty20 is a breakthrough product and has the potential to increase the popularity of the game, reaching audiences which were previously not interested.

–>In cricket, anyway every national team is competing in some series at any point, so IPL needs to create a space if it wants to rise above ‘exhibition’ status to sporting spectacle:
IPL seems to have sound business model. With BCCI’s muscle power I am sure it will definitely a create a slot for itself.

–>Will the much-hyped, much-talked-about, brilliantly-marketed IPL be just another IPO that promises much, is wonderfully packaged and something that will hurt the people who have bought into the concept?:
It’s unfair to compare IPL with the stock markets on one to one basis. In corporate world companies are expected to deliver numbers from quarter to quarter. IPL is a different ball game altogether.

–>One of the reasons why the format may fail is the fact that most cricket fans are rabidly nationalistic and chauvinistic:
Then what about hockey and football and other Olympic sports. India participates in these sports also and why there is not chauvinistic following? The thing is that there are less than ten proper cricket playing nations and India by default a dominant team. As already mentioned Twenty20 is going to change cricket a lot .. it will take it to new geographies .. being champions of the inaugural world cup .. let’s have a proper league before the game is adapted by other countries. Who knows 20-30 years down the line .. there might be a Bangalore team with overseas player from China, Brazil, US and of course Australia.

—> Will IPL improve standard of cricket in India? The English Premier League (EPL) remains one of the toughest leagues in the world but the national team hasn’t lifted the World Cup since 1966. The Spanish La Liaga boasts of one of the most sought after teams, Real Madrid, but Spain have barely gotten close to winning a World Cup:
Indians are reigning Twenty20 world champions, so this argument is not valid.

->Experimentation can backfire. Given example of Super Series between Australia and a combined World XI team and last year’s Africa XI and Asia XI:
The reason these experimentation failed because the format was Test match or ODI, which is usually boring and one sided. Twenty20 cricket doesn’t have ‘boring’ word in its lexicon.

–> many of the franchisees would be hard-pressed to justify this investment as they have had no prior association or long-term commitment to cricket. GMR is from infrastructure, Deccan Chronicle is a media house, India Cements manufactures and sells cement, while Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan fuel dreams:
Do you want politicians to be involved to conduct this league ?

–> There is a death-like silence when an Indian wicket falls and huge cheering for every edge the local batsman comes up with. I can’t imagine Ponting being supported in Mumbai and Symonds being cheered at Chandigarh:
The same should have happened when Indians play abroad, but half of the stadium will be filled Indian(migrant) supporters. Spectators want entertainment and Twenty20 format has everything in it to provide 3 hours of high voltage cricket.

–>The sale has been made but what about after-sales? Do they have the capability? I am not sure. Will people watch? Remember the timing clashes with all the soaps. Will housewives let their husbands watch the cricket while their favourite soap is on air?:
This kind of clash is a perennial problem, it has been happening from many years when there is a telecast of 9 hr ODI match or a 5 days test match. I think all the soaps are re-aired next day in afternoon, so housewives will compromise and I am sure gradually they will be more interested in explosive cricket rather than the soaps in which protagonist undergo plastic surgery three-four times in his/her lifetime.