As regular readers of this blog will know by now, I'm not a huge fan of Twenty20 cricket. For me, the IPL represents so much that is wrong with modern sport: short-term profit for the few at the expense of long-term development for the many. However, love it or loathe it, IPL has been an incredibly popular competition, especially for the cricket-loving Indians and their super-rich individuals keen to raise their own profiles by bankrolling the city franchises and luring most of the world's best players to India for a few months.
This year I have tried to follow the tournament more closely, catching climaxes of matches on telly when I get home from work. Congratulations to the Chennai Super Kings, of course, but I can't recall many exciting finishes at all. For all the camerawork showing close-ups of dancing girls, excited children with flags and vuvuzelas, glamorous ladies, shiny Volkswagens and even shinier Shane Warne teeth, stadia were often half-empty and TV audience figures were apparently well down on previous series.
Still, as long as companies and billionaires wish to finance and sponsor it, IPL will surely continue, and it has spawned similar tournaments in other countries, such as the irritatingly vulgarly named 'Big Bash' in Australia. A major problem for me, apart from the 'six' being rebranded the 'DHL Maximum', a wicket 'Citi Moment of Success' and even a catch has to be a 'Karbonn Kamaal Catch' (who's KK?!), is the contradiction over the whole essence of T20. It's supposed to be a fast and furious format, yet the play during IPL games is infuriatingly slow. There may be more atmosphere than in Test matches (just compare with the England v Sri Lanka Test at cold, wet and windy Cardiff this week!) but there are so many breaks. For a start, there's the blasted 'Maxx Mobile Strategic Time Out'. Why don't they be honest and call it a Maxx Mobile Extended Ad Break? There are always lengthy on-field consultations between every ball where bowling, batting and fielding strategies are discussed by players and I just want to scream at the TV: "Just get on with it!"
Anyway, rant over! There were, of course, some brilliant performances. Last year, true cricketing class won out, in that stars such as Tendulkar and Kallis reigned supreme with the bat in particular. Both played well again in 2011 but the stand-out performers have to be Chris Gayle and Lasith Malinga. The laconic West Indian opener arrived late but produced some devastating displays of powerful hitting, securing the 'Orange Cap' for hitting most runs, 608 in only 12 innings, including 44 sixes, almost twice as many as the second highest total (by MS Dhoni, of all people!). Yes, he was found out by spin bowling in the final, but when he got going in earlier stages, he was irresistible. For the Mumbai Indians, Malinga's brilliance at bowling yorkers have become legendary and he ended the tournament with 28 wickets at fewer than 6 runs an over, an incredible achievement.
The likes of Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee and Morne Morkel all had their moments, but spin bowling again proved to be a match-winning option, whether slowing down the openers or frustrating batsmen chasing targets in the closing overs. Subtle changes in pace, flight and length proved more devastating than sheer speed, the occasional in-swinger at the toes or seamer's slower ball, and I take my hat off to Daniel Vettori, Ravi Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Rahul Sharma and even old Warney himself for demonstrating the slow bowler's art. This is one area where T20 can truly benefit the more traditional forms of the sport. A few big innings from players such as Paul Valthaty deserved to make the headlines but the young Kings XI Punjab all-rounder couldn't carry that early form into the second month. Remember he has never played a first-class match in his life and he may never will.
Another positive is the improvement in fielding. One-day cricket certainly raised standards in the 1970s and now T20 has taken athleticism to new heights. Runs, wickets, strike and economy rates are all important but I reckon the Super Kings' enthusiasm, energy, skill and timing in the outfield were crucial factors in their success. Even fast bowlers like Dougie Bollinger were pulling off great stops and pouching brilliant catches on the boundary.
Much is made of the importance of international recruits to IPL, and players of the stature of Vettori, Gayle, Shaun Marsh, Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Mahela Jayawardene and Jesse Ryder do bring something different to the party. However, I reckon the competition succeeds more in showing the world the depth of talent that exists within India. Already ranked no. 1 in Tests and 50-over World champions, most of the best teams were captained by local heroes like Tendulkar, Dhoni and Gambhir. Younger stars like Raina, Vijay, Kohli and the aforementioned spinners have also shone, proving that India have plenty of talent waiting to replace the legendary Tendulkar, Dravid and Zaheer Khan. IPL will doubtless endure a few seasons more, without dodgy characters like Lalit Modi, but the organisers need to recognise that sometimes less can be better (including number of games), especially in the long run. If cricket really does need Twenty20 to attract fans and players of the future, the format should not be run into the ground to rake in big bucks for just a few years. Cricket deserves better than that, and so do the highly talented players who illuminated the past few months.
