We haven’t really paid any attention to the IPL this season at The Reverse Sweep.
After a six week tournament of coloured clothing, blanket advertising and Mr Cliche himself Ravi Shastri, the last thing we wanted was more of the same.
And to tell the truth, we don’t care much for the Twenty 20 format of the game – two pumps and a squirt and it’s all over.
So watching a bunch of mercenaries play a bewildering number of matches for teams franchises we frankly couldn’t give a damn for is not high on our to do list.
We did take a passing interest in the IPL last year and even adopted a team - Delhi Daredevils – the intoxicating mix of Sehwag and Collingwood proving irresistible.
But that was mainly down to the fact that the World T20 immediately followed last season’s IPL. So it was worth tuning in to see how the England players were shaping up.
To tell the truth, most of the action passed us by and by week two of the tournament we had lost interest.
Don’t get us wrong, if we were Indian and in our teens or early twenties, we’d probably love the IPL especially if our home city was one of the franchises taking part.
And one cannot argue against the popularity of the IPL.
We’ve just got back from Kenya, where all the matches were shown live in the hotel bar. You'd think after their shambolic performance in the World Cup, the last thing that Kenyans would want to watch is cricket.
Against our better judgement we decided to tune in to the conclusion of the Kochi-Kolkata match.
Other than the garish outfits – Kochi’s orange and purple number really is something to behold – we’ve already forgotten what happened – Kochi may have won and they may have not.
So, whilst the IPL may be the biggest thing in world domestic cricket and more important to Chris Gayle than playing for the West Indies, we much prefer our pipe, slippers and a large dose of county cricket.
Where next?
County Championship XI of the week (#2 2011)
Check out all our Cricket heroes and zeroes
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