It is obvious to all those who know me that I do not approve the IPL in general, and the Twenty20 format cricket games, in particular. But it is the beauty of cricket that despite this absurdly reduced format, it still remains cricket. There are some differences, of course, for instance, (1) the balance between the ball and bat has further shifted in the favor of the bat, (2) chance plays far greater role than in longer forms, (3) there are no real ups and downs in a match and a couple of good overs for a team are enough to turn the flow of the game irreversibly.
Because IPL games are still cricket matches, because, cricket season in Germany is still few week away, (finally) because youtube offers free webcast of the IPL matches, I could not help watching the IPL matches over weekend.
While watching the matches I realized another change that IPL has brought in for me, which I might share with the Cricket purists.
I still follow all the international cricket [cricinfo is so generous and informative and updated] and I follow cricket with a clear bias, I always have a favorite team -- for all combinations of countries I have a favorite pre-decided e.g. India takes the precedence over all, and I do not like to see the Aussies win yet again.
But IPLis different, I do not have a favorite team, even though its in its third season -- maybe its a bit too early and I should wait until all the superstars of the longer forms of cricket retire. It is true that because I have my favorite players scattered in all the teams I cannot support any team in particular. I assume that most fans have same problem. Perhaps more teams in IPL-4 with 94 odd matches, fans will finally have to decide to follow one or two teams -- even an ardent fan cannot keep track of 94 games happening in less than two weeks.
Watching cricket, without loyalties was something new, and despite buffering issues on youtube webcast, I enjoyed it far more. There was no adrenaline flowing, thus, my head remained still on shoulders (like it should be in execution of a good drive) and I was able to appreciate the effort and skills of the players. My opinions about the game proceedings were more objective and even my predictions were more correct (have you tried the predictor feature on cricinfo -- its adds so much fun in following game over internet).
Overall it was my cricket Zen moment. And I have more clear plans for my weekends as long as the IPL3 runs. After that, our own cricket season starts...
In the meantime thank you very much cricinfo and youtube
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