IPL 2020 begins without the glitzy opening ceremony and usual fanfare

The cricketing aspect of things will be under greater scrutiny this time round

Opening games are all about optimism. In the air is the freshness of a new season, with lingering hope that things will be better than last time. Favourites are named, individuals talked up and potential strategies discussed. It’s generally a buoyant time for fans, many of whom tend to luxuriate in their own confidence before reality finally hits. 

In any other year, that’s what the mood would have been like ahead of a new Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Some of that enthusiasm is still undimmed, but there is also confusion, anxiety and fear over how a cricket tournament of this magnitude will play out in the time of plague. In this strange, condensed summer of sport, the IPL has done well to even find room on the cricket calendar, skillfully butting out the T20 World Cup to take its place. But then that’s the stature of the IPL: It’s not an International Cricket Council (ICC) property, but is still viewed as a global event. 

And this is why it acquires a singular importance this time around. International cricket resumed in July, and things have been largely smooth, with England, the West Indies, Ireland, Pakistan and Australia all getting a piece of the action. But none of these games had the eyeballs of the world fixed on them, as is likely to happen when defending champions Mumbai Indians take the field against the Chennai Super Kings later tomorrow. The IPL has always branded itself as a sporting behemoth, but has often shirked all responsibility that usually comes with such a standing. Now is, perhaps, a good time to fix that. It must now prove that its eagerness to host a tournament during an unparalleled health crisis wasn’t born out of financial greed but a genuine intention to offer cricket fans and players a much-needed escape in this truly nightmarish year. 

 

 

Having some of the people they’re claiming to host the competition for in the stands would have obviously helped. Former Manchester United manager Matt Busby once said that “football is nothing without fans” (apparently, former Celtic boss Jock Stein voiced the same). An end-to-end action sport like football is evidently more fan-driven than cricket, but the latter is also heavily reliant on support from the crowd, especially in a format like T20 that is built entirely around entertainment. 

TV viewership is expected to be high — 462 million Indians watched the 2019 edition — but watching a breathless game of cricket with only the clanging of bat meeting leather keeping you company will take some getting used to. European football leagues, when they restarted post the lockdown, used artificial, club-specific crowd noise to give the illusion of filled stadiums for people watching at home. The idea worked surprisingly well, but that’s a difficult feat to pull off in the IPL, given that none of the teams has anthems or songs that fans can recite during games, as is norm with club football almost everywhere in the world. 

But the general absence of razzmatazz — there will be no glitzy opening ceremony this year — may not be such a bad thing for the IPL. Over the years, the more fashionable, ancillary elements of the league have often overshadowed the splendid quality of cricket on show. It’s easy to forget that the success of the IPL was built not on foreign cheerleaders and movie star owners, but on the fact that it has always attracted the best players in the world. It simply wouldn’t have survived for so long had it only relied on this specious brand of glamour. 

That’s partly why the cricketing aspect of things will come under greater scrutiny for this most unusual of seasons. Pitches in the United Arab Emirates can be insipid, resulting in low-scoring games. A recurring scenario like that is never a good look for any T20 tournament, let alone for the one that has been hyped — rightly so — as the best in its class. But even so, minus the usual barrage of fours and sixes, if the IPL can throw up intensely fought games, it would have more than done its job. 

At which point you can’t help but once again state the significance of this year’s tournament — for distressed fans, the IPL will mark the comeback of a quotidian jamboree; for the casual watchers, it will come as a much-needed pastime. In this most unexpected period, sport has risen to heal and repair. The IPL’s universal appeal means it has a tremendous opportunity to further that. And that’s why this time around, no matter what, it cannot fail.