“It’s just not cricket!” I heard this remark as two traditionalists of the game were agog with the spectacle that the Indian Premiership League brought to our cricket ovals. 

None of this incomprehensible (to a novice) three days of one team in all whites competing against another team in all whites with a tactical blocking game that may produce a draw. Here in the late summer across South Africa, we witnessed a circus of monumental proportions that filled the stadiums and blew away any notion that cricket could be boring. The IPL was heroically sensational. With games pegged at 20 overs (120 bowled deliveries) a result would be guaranteed, every run vital, every four-run boundary a major event and every six treated with such wild recognition you’d swear Superman were at the crease. Dancing girls, fireworks, big screen replays, drummers and brass bands, strategic breaks (after 10 overs to air television ads), on-field interviews, on-camera search for unknowns in the crowd to fly to India and take part in a Bollywood movie, cash gifts to kids in the crowd to give to their schools, a host of commentators who really know their game and imparted enthusiasm as the games played themselves out, and then, the star-studded teams with hand-picked talent from the best in the world with fast cars and wealth, made this almost an overload of superlatives. To think it took only 23 days to swing the venue from India, because of the threat of terrorism, to the major centres of South Africa, was nothing short of astounding. In India, cricket is worshipped as a sport (soccer, a poor relative in the country of over a billion people, has only produced a team that ranks 144th in the world, the little islands of Vanuatu beat them to 143rd place). Of India’s top 10 TV sports audiences in 2004, all were for cricket. The vision and leadership for this new burst of popularity came from one man, Lelit Modi, a visionary with the power to make it happen. It’s just not cricket: it’s a whole new ball game. Is this any way to run a sports tournament? Let the people, the players and the profits answer that. ROYSTON LAMOND Publisher

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