As the calendar turns into March, Australian cricket begins to decline and is replaced by Australia's most popular sports, Australian Rules Football and Rugby League.
Despite the business end of the domestic season still remaining, cricket will be largely invisible while Australia is in nearby New Zealand for a Test and T20 tour. It's a far cry from December-January, the peak of the cricket season when excitement runs high and giddy fans vow to “finally go watch the Indian Premier League.”
By the time cricket's most lucrative and premier league kicks off, the enthusiasm has of course waned, and in Australia only the absolute most die-hard cricket fans pay attention to the IPL, which is obviously played late at night. The IPL is just the odd highlight on Australian news channels of Australian players doing something special.
The IPL has undeniable weight, devouring some of the sport's best players and shutting down the cricket calendar for two months every year, but it doesn't have much influence outside of South Asia. Although major franchise leagues such as the NBA tend to dominate the sport globally, cricket has traditionally been most popular at the international level.
Although it is under threat by the emergence of T20 franchise leagues around the world, for now IPL remains an obsession largely confined to India. And if the IPL boasts his massive $6 billion broadcasting deal and can attract top cricketers from around the world with hefty paychecks, that's good enough.
Quick Mitchell Starc fetched a record $3 million at auction in December, more than he would receive in his year-long contract with Australia. Australia's impressive Test and World Cup winning captain Pat Cummins has been sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for $2.48 million.
Although it is an eye-opening deal, it is still not enough to cause players from powerhouses Australia and England to switch allegiance away from international cricket.
However, small cricketing nations have been unable to prevent the inroads of these wealthy private leagues, especially the IPL, weakening their national teams and shallowing the talent pool in international cricket. There have long been concerns that the IPL, which is funded by Saudi Arabia, would expand to such a size that the American league would take up more than six months of its run.
As of now, the IPL will remain in two months, blocking a significant portion of the cricket calendar in April-May. This is like a truce between major countries such as England and Australia, which do not play matches during this period.
Other countries, such as Pakistan, whose players have been excluded from the IPL because of tensions between neighboring nuclear-armed rivals, have to scrape together fixtures against similar teams that are largely unaffected by the IPL.
But international cricket will largely be replaced by the glitz and glamor of the IPL, with the schedule of the first 21 matches to be played over 17 days just announced. Due to the general election, the full tournament schedule cannot be announced. Although his IPL tournaments in the past have managed to avoid election day, there are always concerns about security and police protection.
“As always, BCCI will work closely with the government and security agencies to comply with all necessary procedures and recommendations related to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in India,” the BCCI said.
“The BCCI will work with the local authorities to finalize the schedule for the remainder of the season taking into account the voting date.”
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