IPL, single greatest influence on cricket in last decade

To that extent, it is like world cricket’s big festival. You get to see talents like Glenn Maxwell who live on the edge, out-of-the-box performers like James Faulkner, cutting edge innovators like AB de Villiers, ageing draws like Virender Sehwag all mingling with legends of traditional cricket like Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting. It is cricket’s equivalent of Davos or Cannes, you must be seen, you must exhibit.

READ: Hidden Gardens, thanks to KKR

And yet, the IPL, like the many performers within it, lives on the edge. It has been the single greatest influence on world cricket in the last decade but it has seen players, teams and owners banned for indiscretion. You could say that opportunity attracts all kinds, that the IPL is a precocious child finding its feet amongst the great leagues of the world but it can no longer let the dark colour what it brings to the game and to those that follow it.

The whole Kochi experience was bitter and while its ejection has strengthened the IPL, there cannot be another. Like all flaming start-ups inevitably do, the IPL needs a period of quiet consolidation. Not this year but for the next five.

It’s influence, and to be fair that of the Big Bash in Australia and the increasingly acceptable CPL in the West Indies, was there to see at cricket’s recently ended World Cup. Never was the T20-isation of the 50-over game more apparent than now.

True, it has coincided with rule changes that favoured extravagant hitting but at the heart of what Maxwell and de Villiers did was a game chiselled by the experience of T20 cricket; what David Miller did for South Africa was influenced by time spent at Yorkshire but even more so by the experience of finishing matches for the Kings XI Punjab. But this outrageous shot-making of batsmen has also led to a welcome trend in limited overs cricket. It has rekindled awareness that wicket-taking bowlers are invaluable to our game.

At the heart of the success of the Mumbai Indians in 2013 was the fact that Lasith Malinga and especially Mitchell Johnson were knocking batsmen over. Rather than contemplate which boundary to clear, batsmen were thinking of survival as they were when Sunil Narine was helping the Kolkata Knight Riders win games. Maybe the absence of a genuine wicket-taking bowler is at the heart of the so-near-yet-so-far performances in the last three years of the Chennai Super Kings.

I wonder too, if it is merely a co-incidence, that the two most disappointing teams at the World Cup, certainly the two most dated in their approach, were teams that don’t do a lot of international T20 cricket, that don’t mingle with the best in the IPL. England and Pakistan looked sluggish, they looked like yesterday’s cars on today’s roads.

Pakistan’s best moment came from the amazing talent of a 29-year old Wahab Riaz but it is worth noting too that their best batting talents are not flowering, are getting left behind. The IPL though isn’t only about playing but also mingling with the very best that come here.

Hence, the parallel drawn earlier to an economic summit or a film festival. David Warner came as a raw but breathtaking talent to the Delhi Daredevils and his mind was opened to what was possible over a conversation with Virender Sehwag. Faf du Plessis emerged a better player as much for what he did on the field as the time he spent with Michael Hussey at Chennai Super Kings and Dwayne Bravo has acknowledged the influence of MS Dhoni in his career.

A young fast bowler gets to spend six weeks at Kolkata Knight Riders with a generous Wasim Akram, this year young players at Royal Challengers will not only rub shoulders with de Villiers and Kohli but spend valuable time with the admirable Dan Vettori. I wonder sometimes how far players like Alex Hales and Jos Buttler would have gone with a little more exposure at the IPL.

But while the IPL is the great learning experience of the modern game, there is another that nurtures your all-round game like nothing else still can. And I am hoping that while the world flocks to India and enjoys the spotlight of T20 cricket, quietly Cheteshwar Pujara will be becoming a better cricketer in England. Rahul Dravid became a better player after a season in England and more recently Kane Williamson did. Maybe Pujara can too, maybe the denial of the IPL can eventually benefit him in the other great finishing school of cricket.

Two different worlds in April and May in world cricket!