With the end of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the fourth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) was all set to give Indians more cricket excitement. The IPL was inaugurated on April 8 with the game between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.
TV ratings of the first match peaked immediately but then began a gradual decline. Now the day/night Ipl contests are in full swing but the viewership has gone down, the tickets remain unsold and TV has switched to Bollywood.
Indians claim cricket to be their religion. The excitement over becoming the world champions was something the organisers of the IPL thought would work in their favour. What they forgot to factor in was the element of fatigue. Shah Rukh Khan was able to bring in throngs of spectators in the first game, but that was about it. Now the league gets a few spectators and the broadcasters fear axing of sponsors. The IPL tournament is scheduled to last till May 28 but Indians seem to have run out of wind in the matter.
Close to 60 percent of the Indian population lives below the poverty line, a factor that wanes the enthusiasm of even the most die hard fan of the game. V. Sridhar, a native of Chennai, says, “It is hard to keep spending RS. 2500 for every game and there are seven home games for CSK. Already, our pockets were blown by World Cup.”
Some analysts suggest that the IPL games have to compete with prime time soaps and cinema, forms of entertainment which were put on the backburner for the duration of the ICC Cricket World Cup but now are in full swing.
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