DLF Indian Premier League

I've always been a cricket fan, mostly influenced by my dad, as he has been a true fan and enthusiastic player of this sport for most of his life, starting with street cricket ofcourse right upto cricket with his daughter, aka me, in our apartment! Ofcourse, i've always supported India, being what I consider is a patriotic Indian (and this extends to other things too, not only cricket, though I do believe in a Global Family, although that is something to talk about in other circumstances!!)
So naturally I had mixed opinions obout the DLF Indian Premier League when i first about how it was to be conducted, with players being bought by different teams irrespective of where they were from. My first reaction was one of disgust, that they would make cricket a trade, like football, saddened me! (Sorry football fans, being a die-hard cricket fan, its only recently that I've begun to watch football and actually enjoy it!! And I used to have a theory that any true cricket fan hated football and vice versa... this was recently disproved though!). Then when I began thinking about it, it actually seemed like a good thing, for many reasons.
Although it had become a trade of sorts, with prices being fixed on the heads of the players who are more-or-less worshipped as Gods here in India (okay, its more of a bidding system, where the highest bidder gets the player they wanted!), there is something good about that factor. It puts all players who've chosen to be a part of this League on par according to their talent and experience, barring the 'icons', Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. Sure, maybe the motive for IPL is money, but the underlying intention is good. Amazing exposure for Indian newbies, a common platform for a whole range of cricketers to improve their skills, even if its only in 'twenty-twenty's, which is the more popular form of cricket in today's fast paced world! Also, more cricket for the crazy fans!!
Ofcourse the obvious drawbacks are overly worked cricketers, chances of earlier burn-out due to too little time off the field and politics within teams because of fee differences. But all of these can be overcome, and are being!
Having said all of this, I was largely ignorant about the teams and their "sponsors" until a few days before the day of the grand opening, right here in Namma Bengaluru. I looked at a few of the teams official sites and decided that since I've been living in Bangalore basically all my life, it made sense to support the Royal Challengers Bangalore. And I do admire Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, and Zaheer makes it to my top-5 favourite bowlers list! Jaques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Chanderpaul, Wasim Jaffer, Nathan Bracken, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Abdur Razzak... somehow these players made the very line-up of the RCB seem impressive, and I was slowly pulled into the vortex of the IPL waiting eagerly for the first match of the season, and first match ever of the IPL.
Due to unavoidable events, I missed seeing the inauguration, which i read about though, in a post online, put up a mere 2 hours following the opening! But that seemed kind of slow considering the technological developments we have seen recently. The "lung-opener between Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Kolkata Knight Riders" was to begin shortly after the grand opening ceremony 8 p.m. Local time, well... IST!!! In this ceremony the IPL and the BCCI ofcourse got all praise from the ICC, and apparently the BCCI hoped that the fans would continue to maintain their interest in the league! Talk about confidence...
I was rooting for the home team to win, and one would expect such a result considering that the Home team had all the advantages!! Talk about false expectations. In my opinion, 3 + 1 records of IPL were set in one night that will be hard for any other teams to beat this season.
1} McCullum's smashing 158 of 73 balls
2} the Kolkata Knight Riders score of 222
3} RCB's humiliating 140-run defeat in 15.5 overs
+ 1} The number of mis-fields and stumbles by just the RCB team!!
Though no bets there, since who knows what this amazing team RCB can do in the upcoming matches. We don't have to look too far back to see an example of our Indian team coming back after a humliating defeat. Maybe RCB will follow that principle. Or they may continue to play as badly as they did here. Who knows??!!
It all depends on the players they select as their 11! I didn't get the logic behind leaving out Nathan Bracken in the first match of the season and there are so many other un-answered questions! But that is for the team to know, and me to speculate about. So we'll see if they'll make adequate changes and practice a tad more before their next home match on 26th Apr... long time away in one sense, right upon us in another.
A new era of cricket began when T20s began. The IPL is just another step in this direction, just like the T20 world cup. As a cricket fan, it is important to be able to change with time... because small changes are happening constantly, like the 'free-hit'. Although I prefer good old ODIs, I think I'm going to enjoy the IPL. I am, after-all, a true cricket fan!