For the uninitiated, Indian Premier League or IPL is cricket’s equivalent of soccer’s English Premier League. This started in India last year and drew large crowds. The country is divided into 8 zones with each zone being allowed to bid for foreign players. Each team has its own brand ambassador, coach and all the support stuff. The concept is not new for soccer fans obviously but it was completely new for all the cricket fans. It was pure entertainment as the “instant cricket” ruled the television during the evenings and the crowds loved rooting for their own local team. The addition of overseas players spiced up things as traditional rivals like played in the same team and players from the same team played against each other somtimes.
The tournament had to be moved to South Africa this year due to security reasons. The fact that IPL and the national elections were starting during the same time of the year was the prime reason for the move. The security agencies in India were not in a position to offer their services to both the ministers and the sportsmen. Considering the magnitude of the event, a move abroad was sensible. This meant the tournament could be conducted in its entirety. My team is the Chennai Kings, who were the runner-up last year, because I am a big fan of Dhoni (the captaiin of the Indian team) and I also live there (so its my local team). Unfortunately, they lost their first game today. But I am really hoping they would come back strongly in the coming matches.
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