The view from Old Blighty - 3 - Inbox at Cricinfo

But I have a confession to make. I don’t care about Michael Vaughan right now. Nor do I have any feelings one way or the other about Ian Bell. At the merest mention of Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad and the rest, I feel a yawn rising deep within me and an overwhelming desire to drink a glass of warm milk and go to bed. It all seems so parochial, so narrow and well, so very very dull. When all the best cricketers in the world are gathered together in one place, why on earth would anyone want to talk about Ryan Sidebottom?

It was brought home to me how much the IPL is changing the shape of my cricket brain on Sunday. Whilst waiting for a strategy break to end, I was channel surfing and came across what looked very much like a game of cricket. There were players in coloured clothes. There was a bowler, a batsman and some fielders. Somewhere in the ether, Mike Atherton was talking. But something wasn’t right. It took me a while to figure it out. Then it dawned on me. THERE WAS NOBODY THERE.

Meanwhile, out in South Africa, large numbers of people have been turning out to see apparently made-up franchises with no history and no sense of tradition play a disgracefully vulgar version of the great game. And what’s worse, they appeared to be enjoying themselves. There was a lot of music, trumpets, fancy dress, drinking and dancing. Whisper it quietly, particularly if there is an English cricket journalist in the room, but these people were experiencing something almost unheard of in county cricket. They were being entertained.

Sadly, the commentary has continued to be more Bangalore than Deccan this week, though Harsha Bhogle did pull a master-stroke during Thursday’s play by asking Neil McKenzie whether he thought Kevin Pietersen was really a South African. Suddenly there was tension in the booth as McKenzie mumbled his way through a few syllables of feigned disinterest, whilst trying to choke back his urge to yell, “Traitor!” at the top of his voice. “If he thinks he’s an Englishman, then he must be,” said the temporarily unemployed opener, through gritted teeth.

But Bhogle aside, the broadcasters seem to be doing their best to minimise our viewing pleasure. During the first week, the camera would lazily pan over the jubilant crowd between overs, perhaps lingering on the cheerleaders before returning to the action. In week two, this relaxed scene-setting has been replaced by the scourge of sports coverage the world over: the player interview. A never-ending stream of non-combatants have been miked up and prodded wirelessly to read from the official IPL Cliché Manual, whilst being unsure which camera to look at.

And then there’s Jeremy Coney.

On Monday he blagged his way into the manual scoreboard.
“There are all sorts of things here,” he began, breathlessly, “Numbers and er…”
He could have added ‘letters’ but that would have been it really. He cornered the chief scoreboard operator, a serious-looking chap, who seemed slightly bemused that the broadcasters would want to go live from the inside of a score box.
“How long have you been working here?” asked Coney, a la Prince Charles
“Since 1979,” replied the number king.
Coney the Comedian spotted an opening;
“You don’t live up here do you?” he asked, with a chuckle.
“No, I do not live up here,” deadpanned the interviewee.
It turned out that the man watched the cricket through a small peep hole.
“I see, and what do you do then?” asked Coney.
“I tell this man who operates the scoreboard.”
“And what does he do?”
“He changes the score.”
It was gripping television.

And in between episodes of the Jeremy Coney Show, Setanta have redoubled their efforts to give us all a yellow-tinted headache. It isn’t just that their studio guests are awful. It’s the fact that every five minutes we are snatched away from the stadium and dragged kicking and screaming back into Setanta world, not because the man in the shirt and slacks has anything useful to contribute, but simply because, rather like Bangalore, they’ve paid out good money and they’re damn well going to use him.

the IPL is a nightmare to watch on tv in india. extra long pre-match shows debate every little uninteresting thing. mandira bedi's inane interviews must be taped and sold as a cure for insomnia. the camera work is shoddy. when a wicket falls or an over is completed,we are immediately subjected to a barrage of ad's. all that being said.it is a thousand times better than county cricket. first reason is, in the IPL there are talented people playing unlike county cricket. secondly, as you mentioned,people pay money and turn up to watch. the english are unhappy about the IPL only because they failed to think of the concept first. and on the flintoff issue.stop whingeing all of you poms. If he had not gotten injured and had played a stellar role in the IPL,every single journalist would be praising it as the best decision that freddie ever took. and its not like he has never been injured while playing for england.

Andrew,nice article. even though i am a die hard fan of IPL(I skip my office hours to watch Deccan chargers play some times,i am that crazy to watch IPL in these hard economic times and job losses etc..thats says..!!)...what can i do the excitement of IPL is such,but i do agree with you regarding the commentators....why are they so loud, the cricket is defiantly getting more exciting and we can see from the south African crowds turing up to the mathes and the close finishes. there is no need for hard noises. I live in dubai and i didn't even watched a single ball of Australia-Pakistan series and off course i don't care for Eng-WI series, so don't you think by making a permanent window for IPL will make some of us watch the other cricket and resolve the problems of players revolting against their cricket boards to play in IPL.I heard even chris gayle postponed his trip to England to play an extra match in IPL.I think IPL is here to stay and grow further in strength.

IPL in India (ad break whenever the ball is dead, even mid over, and definitely overlapping the last and first balls); IPL on Setanta (studio comments intermingling needlessly); all the while interviews 'downstairs' while the action is hot in the middle-- watching IPL on TV has been a pain even though the action is great.
I could not find a single reference to the IPL in The Times on arriving in UK Thursday- I thought IPL had died! Perhaps those in UK have lost interest after the catastrophic performances of the highest paid players.
If anybody else had played in place of Andrew Flintoff, Chennai would have won 2 more matches- he was positively the 'match-loser' in half the matches he played; perhaps they should introduce such an award for every match. And Pietersen also would have won these awards.
It is sad that good players are kept out by so-called stars (please see Sunday Times yesterday re the Flintoff allrounder fallacy) paid obscene money per run, not century or fifty!

This blog clearly indicates the decline of the English public's interest in their own cricket. It is a shame that the birthplace of cricket has dug its own game into the grave.

The IPL is the future of cricket and I don't care about the purists anymore. They can scream how much ever they want. If you wanna market cricket to younger audiences and families globally then the T20 format is the way to go. Speaking of tradition and history, every team or club HAS to start WITH neither of the former two. The IPL is trying to become like FA Premier League of cricket and surely it WILL simply cause of the influx of foreign players into eight of the franchises.

I feel bad for you Andrew. Your English cricket hasn't improved one bit since the day I began watching cricket in 1996. Same old same old.

Like it or dislike it,you just cannot ignore the IPL!!It is here to stay.The world and specially the English have to realise this.If you disregard the hype and the excess of sponsorship displays,one realises that it is cricket that is center-stage. Where else can you get to watch some of the best cricketers on this planet playing together-it is only at the IPL.The Aus-Pak games were boring more so as they were played to near empty stadiums.In contrast,almost all of the IPL matches had so much of color,noise and spectator participation,it would be futile to to say that that the IPL does not generate public interest.It seems that people want to have fun,be entertained while watching the best of cricket players play the game of cricket.In this day of instant almost everything,one has to realise that the IPL is here to stay.If the English wish to adopt an ostrich-like attitude,so be it.But,I am confident that they will come around.You just cannot keep a good thing down forever!!