A New Slogan for Cricket: "We Eat IPL, We Speak IPL, We Sleep IPL"

The season's beginning of Indian Premier League or IPL from 12th March has been the main reason for men to leave offices early. This Twenty20 match laid its foundation on 18th April 2008. A simply continuous game for 46 days steals the show and our eyes remain glued to this full time entertainer for people around the world. The fact that surprises me the most is that the players are being auctioned. Auctioned! Nobody ever imagined that a time will come when players will be bought by rich industrialists and entertainers to play matches.

I am not trying to be a critical to the recent trends, just that I get amazed with the present undertaking of such an exciting game. There was a time when cricketers were not paid appropriately unless the match was won. Now, they earn in millions; What a drastic change!

Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Sastri and others who gave India the most historic win in the year 1983 struggled to take this sport from eyes to heart. A sport which would entertains the audience with a sportsman's spirit has now majorly become a convenient way of earning money. May be this is what is called change with time and as a consequence we need to flow it. It is true that we get to see all efficient players under one roof, mixed and matched. Still, being a cricket lover at a point of time in the past, it hurts me. It could be that cricket is not losing its charm but one thing is sure that the sport is losing its mission, vision & values.

In these three years of IPL matches, how many of us remember the balling by Shane Warne or the sixes by Sachin Tendulkar? The match of world cup is still fresh in the mind of many Indians. The last historic balling of Kapil Dev which changed the entire scenario is still green in our thoughts. That was what a match should be like, where cricketers did not play, they lived cricket. The spectators did not watch, they felt every motion and action running through there veins.

Watching cricket was like a worship for me, and the cricketers my beloved Gods. No more do I feel the same emotions binding me to the sport. My request to avid Cricketers is: “ Do not play Cricket, Feel it”.

You could get some more from this book on IPL that I have come across on Coralhub.