IPL turns 18: Indian Premier League enters adulthood, its great success being a blend of sports, entertainment and business
No 18-year-old has captured the imagination of a country since Sachin Tendulkar than IPL. It is as though yesterday that IPL was born, with a swirl of sixes into the Bangalore night skies, the iconic ground heaving to the newborn raptures. Seventeen seasons have passed, and the league would embrace adulthood when the fireworks whizz into the Kolkata skies on Saturday. Like exhausted but relieved parents, the league’s swarming audience would sigh, “how time flies” and marvel at the fully-formed specimen imposing on cricket’s landscape. And probably poke their touch-screen phones to make changes in their fantasy teams. The loathers have turned lovers with converts’ zeal. It has cord-cut the traditional cricket-watching audience. As much as 43 percent of the audience is women. The cricket wor...