Because of the British colonial past, cricket has become the most popular sport in South Asia. India has the most developed professional league system. With the second highest paid professional league in the world, after the NBA in the US, the Indian Premier League (IPL). The success of the IPL is not only due to the huge domestic cricket market in India, but also due to the internationalization of cricket.
Changes in the IPL
The IPL has undergone two expansions, the first of which was for real, but both new teams were disbanded due to the selfishness of the operators.
The second expansion was actually influenced by the match-fixing case. The traditional powerhouses, Chennai Super Kings and first-year champions Rajasthan Royals, were both banned from 2016 to 2017. As a result, there are vacancies for new teams, avoiding the risk that the remaining six teams will not be able to play.
Because of the high turnover of IPL players, the matches are not necessarily uninspiring. The IPL has a salary cap of about 820 million rupees, and it’s a hard and fast rule. So players who can’t afford the salary and don’t have to stay will usually not get their contracts renewed. Players whose contracts are not renewed before the deadline are added to the player auction along with new players, waiting for the other team to pick them up with their remaining budget.
This system is designed to even out the teams’ strengths, reduce the chances of a perpetual giants and a perpetual crap team, and give more suspense to the IPL each year.
Another mobility factor is that the IPL plays T20 cricket. The schedule is short and compact, and the season is not very long. The IPL has many teams and 60 matches in a season, which can last for about 2 months.
T20 is supposed to be a product that is conducive to promoting professionalism. It is interesting to note that India, a traditional cricketing nation, was initially not convinced by the rules. Now India has become the pinnacle of T20, with cricket stars from all over the world coming to the IPL to strike gold. But after all, it is still a league on Indian soil and in order to protect the local players, each team can only have 8 foreigners and no more than 4 players can play in the same match.
The success of the IPL, which is now as much about cricket as MLB is about baseball. The IPL has led to the professionalization of a number of sports in India, including a traditional sport – Kabaddi and India’s other national sport -Field hockey.
The emerging Indian professional sports have also invested heavily in attracting talent from other countries to “travel to India”. Including many European and American professionals. For example, the Premier Badminton League in India. Although the term ” Premier League” is no longer exclusive to cricket, the IPL remains the most robust league in India today.