IPL is over, what next?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

For the better part of last one month most Indians were busy with either the Lok Sabha Elections or the second season of the Indian Premier League. The evenings meant catching up matches on the idiot box for most Indians thanks to the to tournament being shifted to South Africa. Be it the Chargers, the Riders or the Royals all teams had their dedicated fans who followed them throughout the competition.

If the start of the tournament was spent praying for no rain delays and trying to figure out the perfect team combinations the later half meant calculating the chances of our respective teams in the semi-finals. Many of Kolkata Knight Riders fans like me were relieved of the second half job as it was quite evident the KKR would be the roots of the IPL tree this season!

Now as first season's chokers Deccan Chargers have won the tournament fans wonder what will they do next? It will take some time for things to settle down after the electrifying cricketing actions that lasted for non-stop 37 days. If last year IPL came out with flying colours when it came grabbing eyeballs this year in spite of the General Elections the television sets were buzzing with life feeds from the Rainbow Nation.

There are a lot of people who will rejoice that the Indian Premier League has ended for this year. Topping that list will be the producers of the never ending saas bahu sagas who have been the biggest victims of the IPL in both the seasons. Also the fans of these shows will be happy as they won't need to fight over the remote with their family members. The workaholic bosses will breathe a sigh of relief as their subordinates won't make excuses to go home early. IPL 2 has ended in style with a nail biting match that went down to the wire.

The die-hard cricket fans will be eagerly waiting for the T20 World Cup in June but that tournament would not be as much of an entertainment package as the IPL. The reason is nationality where we won't be able to digest anybody else winning other than India where as in IPL the looser team's supporters could easily switch sides! Hopefully IPL Season 3 will come bigger and better, after all it will be home coming for the tournament after a year's foreign stint.