IPL 5 had
come to an end and I wanted to make an autopsy of IPL 5. The sudden thought
that came to my mind was this IPL has to be remembered for its quality of
cricket. I can corroborate the fact by saying there was 20 matches which came
to last over finish and 14 matches which was a last ball thriller and even the
matches that had a comprehensive finish was only because of outstanding and
breath taking performance by individuals. The examples are
- · AB de Villiers 17 ball 50 odd runs against Deccan Chargers
- · Steve Smith unbeaten 44 off 22 balls and 25 off 12 balls match winning performance against CSK and KXIP.
- · Murali Vijay’s fastest century in IPL 2012 against Delhi Daredevils in semifinals.
- · Chris Gayle's 128 not out off 62 balls helps Bangalore to 21-run win over Delhi.
- · Dale Steyn turning the tables with his pace, length and aggression to make match winning performance against Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore to give chance for Chennai to try for a hat-trick title championship.
Still many
more but I stop with these facts. Even though good performance in field there
were some infuriating things like Spot-fixing,
Shahrukh khan – MCA guard controversies and M amata Banerjee
Bengal CM in KKR IPL title celebrations, etc.
Amongst all
these factors IPL 5 was a failure in terms of business values that is according
to a valuation by Brand Finance, the brand value of IPL has fallen to $2.92
billion (Rs 16,163 crore) from a peak of $4.13 billion (Rs 19,675 crore) in
2010. A Business Standard report noted that even television
ratings have fallen consistently from 4.81 in the first year (2008) to 3.27
this year. Even ad revenues have slumped 30 percent this season from a year
ago. (Courtesy - http://www.firstpost.com/business/brand-ipls-problem-too-much-entertainment-too-little-cricket-328592.html).
The TRV
value have drastically reduced during the league matches where each team play
16 matches. And cricket critics say that the format of IPL has to be changed
and the number of matches (now 76 in total) and time of play i.e. two month
period should be reduced at least 1 or 1.5 months and has to be gelled with
teams in groups, etc. This point hinted me and I have come with an idea where
the whole IPL season will be divided into stages. The idea is as follows,
Stage 1 - Here the number of matches played is 9C2 = (9!)/(2!*(9-2)!) = 36 matches.
Teams will be arranged according to points after stage 1.
Stage 2 - Three groups are formed by dividing the points table by 3 and are arranged as shown and
will be 2 matches for each team within the group. The top two teams will qualify for the
next stage. The number of matches played by each group is 3 and stage is 9.
Stage 3 - Two groups are formed by arranging the Rank 1's in stage 2 in single group and Rank 2's
in another group and same as Stage 2, two matches for each team within the group. The
top two teams will qualify for the next stage. The number of matches played by each
group is 3 and stage is 6.
Stage 4 and Stage 5 are as usual.
By this kind of the format the number of matches gets reduced to 55 and now the tournament length can be greatly reduced. Because of this structure the BCCI can also request IPL to be add the International ICC calender. If ICC adds IPL to the calender list then more and more viewership will be generated around the globe and because of the reduced tournament length franchise can also save some money. At the same time crowd attraction will be more because each team will play against all the teams once in stage 1 with no elimination for the next stage and in stage 2 there is chance for the last rank team to stay alive in tournament by putting a fighting performance.
As I am huge fan of Indian cricket, I wanted to suggest this idea because IPL is a platform for every India player to learn, perform and showcase his qualities at the International Standards.
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