There’s no trepidation now
Updated On: 05 October, 2023 08:02 AM IST | Mumbai | Michael Jeh
Rohit & Co starting as World Cup favourites notwithstanding, the IPL has dulled visiting teams’ fear and unfamiliarity of encountering India’s heat, humidity and spinning tracks
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Australian cricketers arrive at the Chennai airport ahead of their October 8 ICC World Cup 2023 match against India. Pic/PTI
Is the Indian Premier League (IPL) good for Indian cricket in the long run? That question will be answered soon when we see if India has surrendered the advantage of playing at home in return for BCCI coffers that are full to overflowing. The IPL kicked off in 2008 and since then, despite India being the powerhouse of world cricket, on-field and in the piggy bank, they have only won one solitary World Cup in any format, T20 or 50 overs, in the 2011 tournament hosted in India. Even more to the point, despite four T20 World Cups hosted in Asia since the IPL began, India have not won any of them, making a solitary final in 2014 in Bangladesh which Sri Lanka won.
Is it any coincidence that India’s cricketing generosity (is that an oxymoron?) has led to a situation where only one Asian country, Sri Lanka in 2014, has won a World Cup post-IPL? Is this because the IPL has allowed cricketers from around the world to tame their fear of Indian (Asian) conditions and that has in turn robbed all the Asian teams of crucial home country advantage? Yes, Pakistan won the T20 World Cup in England in 2009, but considering that their cricketers have never been allowed to play in the IPL, that win is not a factor in this analysis.
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