A lot has been said and analysed about the Indian Premier League(IPL) in the cricket playing countries' media, more so ever in the Indian media. In my memory i am unable to recollect an event creating such a unprecedented hype in the (Indian) media. I don't want to discuss about neither the economic benefits of IPL nor about the "progress" made in cricket history in the longer run. This thought was born incidentally while watching an IPL match between Chennai super kings Vs Kolkatta Knight riders. Can IPL serve any immediate benefit to Indian cricket when the players return to national duty.
My answer is Yes. IPL or Twenty20 format will surely help the young brigade in their development as a cricketer in a 360 degree fashion. One of the foremost disadvantages of the Indian cricket 'team' till the recent series against the Aussies,is that the we have a bunch of great individual players but as a team we consistently fail against the world's best teams is the lack mental strength. Indian batsman and bowlers are intimated easily against the opposition players and if there are couple of failures by the top order or front line bowlers the morale of the team takes a beating. Also the Indian psyche's never really believed that they can excel in the world sporting arena's. Players will trust their potential and having done before in a crunch situation they will know how to pace their innings or bowl an over as per the situation.
The IPL will give an opportunity for the Indian players to understand and learn from the other 'national' players how they approach a game. In any team we have a bunch of foreign players sharing the discussion table with the leading Indian national players and young ranji players. This will allow the young brigade to learn the best from the eastern & western way of thinking. They will quickly realise cricket these days demands both physical and mental fitness at its peak.
The IPL will also help the young brigade to learn about survival and performing at their best during crunch situation. This will immensely help them when they play the 50 over match during any tense situation. Players can learn to cope up with pressure during their Twenty20 matches and this learnt knowledge will help them a lot. Since experience is the best teacher in this world.
This will also be an opportunity for players from different sides to understand and enjoy each other cultures(hopefully the on field spat between Indian players and Aussie players will be the thing of the past)
If the above mentioned benefits turn to be true i am sure we will have yet another era in the history of the game in India. There was the Pre-1983 era(when India was yet another country playing the gentleman's game), the post-1983 era(when kapil's devils won the world cup against the mighty west indies) there by sowing the seeds which would later on thrust the Indian board to be the most powerful cricket broad in the world and now the IPL era.
Finally many many thanks from myself and from other cricket loving fans to the Indian team which went for 2008 world cup and the BCCI. If not for their disastrous tour and not playing a fair game in handling of the media rights respectively, we wouldn't have got the ICL and hence the IPL.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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