Welcome to the IPL extravaganza !

Photos Courtesy : Dinamalar

IPL - The most hyped, expected,speculated and controversial cricket league in the world has taken off swiftly, after a glitzy opening ceremony. However, in a week's time it has become the most happening thing in this part of the world. The opening ceremony deserves a special mention as it was so lucrative and the organizers of the world cup will have to put special efforts to bring out something close to this one. Thanks to Dr.Vijay Mallya for all the efforts. For those who questioned the success of the tournament and the amount of money involved, the first round of matches has given an astounding reply.

Twenty20 - cricket's youngest child has become the most popular format in India and no wonder, the IPL has chosen to cash in on it. It was indeed exciting to watch Ricky Ponting and Ishant Sharma celebrating their success of dismissing Rahul Dravid. The biggest edge of this league is the signing of the big names in world cricket - Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Sanath Jayasuriya and so on. Having bagged so many international players, one can expect the star power to workout magic interms of pulling the crowd to the staduim. Besides big time money making for the players as well as the organizers, the fact that only four international players can take field at a time, has opened up gates for accomodating young Indian players in the side. This is a great opportunity for them to rub shoulders with the veterans and to feel the pressure of playing big games.

It has been raining sixes and boundaries ever since the tournament commenced and it has been an action packed week so far. One good thing about this shortest version of the game, is its glorious uncertainity. That makes it interesting too. Unkike its rival league - the ICL, where the foreign players' perfomance over-shadowed local talents, we would like to see some match winning perfomances here from our local guys like Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Shikar Dhawan, R Ashwin and others. Besides the U-22 players of India, the IPL has interestingly roped in a few uncapped international prospects like Luke Ronchi, the explosive wicket keeper batsman, David Hussey - Mike Hussey's sibling and a few other players from the Australian domestic circuit.

"There is no friendship on the field" - As Yuvraj Singh quotes, its gonna be a different experience for us to watch these games with the unusual scenario of the rivals playing together and unusual new rivalry building up. Who would not love to watch McGrath bowling to Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar taking on Anil Kumble? People would be keen to see how great players like Sachin tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya playing for the same side, operate in tandem. But, it would be interesting to see how the passion picks up among the crowd. This is new to the Indian crowd as they are only used to the nation vs nation contests. Just as football's English Premier League, we hope that the IPL should also become a massive hit and also be a giant leap towards the globalization of this wonderful game.