Indian Premier League, a smart card to unlock a brave and bold new India

By the word “changed”, the usual tendency is to mean how the IPL has transformed the financial make-up of the game in India.

But after 16 seasons of the cash-rich tournament, harping only on the money matters of the IPL is like blabbering about how Kerry Packer was the catalyst who changed cricket forever in 1977. That’s easy. The IPL makes millionaires out of cricketers, sometimes the unlikeliest of them, it gives employment to a wide range of cricket professionals, even to those who have “retired”, and of course it has made BCCI the big, fat elephant in the circus of cricket.

But is that all? Is the IPL only about lucrative contracts? Or the Rinku Singhs, the rags-to-riches stories? Staring at the 17th chapter of cricket’s most popular tournament which is set to begin in a few days, one feels that the ‘IPL effect’ has been undervalued even while the world was busy attaching a ‘cash-rich’ tag on it.

To put it simply, the IPL has changed how the cricket world looks at India. If the 1983 World Cup win had helped India announce to the world that they were more than just a land of spinners and snake-charmers, the IPL has helped the country garner respect as the new bosses of the game. Australia and England remain elite teams, but are no longer the power centres. Yes, the shift may have started during the Jagmohan Dalmiya era, but it is the IPL which has sealed the deal.

The IPL has given Indian cricket a slick, smart look. Being the ‘Pied Piper’ which other franchise leagues try to ape, the IPL has its own swag. Already a 10-team monstrous affair, it dares to grow even bigger. Over the years, the BCCI has graduated to be one of the finest organisers in the world of sports.

And why just the BCCI, IPL has transformed the Indian cricketer too. India now have a bigger, smarter, ready-to-serve pool of cricketers than they ever had in the past. The change in the Indian cricketer is evident in his attitude and temperament. There may be better talent elsewhere in the world, but in terms of confidence and fearlessness, the current Indian cricketer is second to none.

Take the case of Yashasvi Jaiswal. The young left-handed opener arrived on the international scene as if he had been preparing for it all his life. It seems he has all the answers to tough questions, be it on the field or at the news conference. A ready product. Yes, he worked hard for it, but credit the IPL too, where he got a taste of the grind before making his international debut.

That we expect Team India to beat Australia in Australia nowadays is not just because they play better cricket on the field, but also because they win the battles in the mind.

Indian cricket owes its new-found machismo to the IPL and there’s nothing to be ashamed of it.