In 2011, Indian Premier League audiences were a confused lot. Fans who had never been reluctant to boo or heckle opposition players found themselves pausing when it came to those who had been part of India’s first World Cup triumph in 28 years. At the time, three seasons in, club loyalties took a distant back seat to the fervour that accompanied the national side, and a certain Sachin Tendulkar in particular.
This season’s IPL has 54 players that participated in the 2015 World Cup. All 15 Indian squad members feature, as do 11 from Australia, 10 from South Africa and seven from New Zealand, the other three teams that made the semi-finals. England are represented by the Sunrisers Hyderabad duo of Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara, whose sole World Cup outing came after elimination.
Viewer fatigue is less likely this year. In 2011, those that followed the national team were given next to no time to soak in the World Cup champagne before being asked to buckle up for the IPL rollercoaster. This time, India’s campaign did not end with a six but with an emphatic 95-run defeat against the eventual champions.
“It’s guaranteed that an Indian team will win the trophy,” a TV executive told me cynically when asked why interest in the IPL continued to soar even as ratings for most international matches declined. He had a point. The new breed of IPL fan is not necessarily interested in the intricacies of the split-finger slower ball or the virtues and limitations of inside-out fields. Like Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell, they want More, more, more – usually sixes.
The star cast should oblige. Brendon McCullum’s opening salvos could be crucial if Chennai Super Kings are to win for the first time since 2011, while AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle – who broke 50-over records for the fastest 150 and 200 during the World Cup – spearhead Royal Challengers Bangalore’s challenge. Kings XI Punjab will showcase the astonishing big-hitting capabilities of Glenn Maxwell and David Miller.
The bowlers, on slow pitches worn out after a long season, will just have to improvise as best they can to avoid a hiding. James Faulkner, one of three World Cup-winners – Steve Smith and Shane Watson are the others – with the Rajasthan Royals should be one of those to watch in that regard. And there will always be a place for raw pace, whether that comes from Mitchell Johnson, Trent Boult, Dale Steyn or Mitchell Starc, the World Cup’s player of the tournament.
In 2011, there was a gap of just five days between the World Cup final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the first game of the Indian Premier League season. Chennai, captained by MS Dhoni, whose six over long-on had sealed World Cup glory, beat Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Gautam Gambhir – whose resolute 97 had laid the platform for the Dhoni charge to the finish.
Some of the players seemed exhausted from their World Cup exertions, and fatigue was very much the theme the following night when Kochi Tuskers Kerala – an expansion franchise that would fold after the season – played their first home game against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Approximately only 25,000 turned up to a 60,000-capacity venue. The empty seats and the muted atmosphere amazed Mahela Jayawardene, who captained the Tuskers after the disappointment of the World Cup final. “I didn’t expect it to be half-empty,” he said.
With the Tuskers and Pune Warriors India – they would last three seasons before withdrawing from the league – new to the mix, the season was a clunky 74-game affair, instead of the usual 60. For the Indian contingent, who had played home series against New Zealand and Australia bookended by tours of Sri Lanka and South Africa before heading into the seven-week-long World Cup, it really was the final straw.
At least three of them sought permission from the board to lessen their IPL workload. The answer was an emphatic ‘No’. As a result, the team who ended up in England a month and a half after the IPL was over – by way of a series in the Caribbean – looked and fielded like Dad’s Army. They lost 4-0.
Some careers never recovered from that IPL exertion. Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were the most successful opening combination in Indian cricket history. Neither scaled the heights again. Yuvraj Singh’s recovery from cancer was a huge fillip for cricket lovers, but he too never rediscovered the form that made him central to Indian success at the World Cup and in the 2007 World Twenty20.
Fortunately, the present-day India internationals do not have it so bad. Some of them were part of a four-Test series and a Tri-Series in Australia before the World Cup began, but there’s enough of a break after the IPL to make sure that careers are not blighted again.
One World Cup star who won’t be in action is Wahab Riaz, who bowled the competition’s most thrilling spell. Azhar Mahmood, who has a British passport, remains the lone Pakistani presence, a cause of much heartburn across the border. “I’m going to go into a month of self-loathing and bitterness because I love/hate the IPL,” said a Pakistani friend. “I miss our players being in it so much. I wish politics didn’t always have to play such a heavy hand in the sport.”
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