Since its colourful launch in 2008, the Indian Premier League has taken the cricket world by storm. Of course, the success of the Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni a year earlier winning the inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa provided a solid launch pad for the tournament. So much so that every cricket-playing country now has its very own 20-over league providing packaged entertainment complete with fire-works.
IPL was packaged on the lines of the American sports league, including its very own commissioner. Obviously the commercial aspects needed to be carefully considered but the seeds had been sown.
And the success story of any sporting contest is not just on the tried and tested being able to deliver but the rise of fresh new talent.
Inaugural season winners Rajasthan paraded an exciting young opener from Goa, a state more know for its football, music and seafood. Swapnil Asnodkar stood all of five feet five inches in his socks and striding out with then South African skipper Graeme Smith, who stands several inches above six feet, indeed made the long and short of it.
Asnodkar's season average of 59.71 in his seven appearances for the ultimate champions catapulted the Goan to heights of fame the opener had never even imagined.
Every team has its own complement of "net bowlers", and its here that several new names have popped up. Mohit Sharma, now a regular in the Chennai line-up, started as one. So did Navdeep Saini, part of the Bengaluru franchise and also served as India's net bowler in the 2019 ICC World Cup in England. That is one step away from international selection.
IPL 2020 promises to be hardly different as each franchise is permitted a complement of 10 net bowlers, whose job mainly is to prevent unnecessary fatigue to the front-liners without denying enough practice opportunities to the batsmen. The restrictions have become necessary due to the Covid19 pandemic which has forced the IPL to foreign shores in the first place.
Several franchise owners, however, are reported to be not too keen on the full quota of 10 and would like to put to use some of the talent available in the United Arab Emirates itself. Obviously the stock would be of south-Asian origin but the chance to bowl with the some of the best in the world could certainly go a long way in honing their talent.
UAE must not miss the opportunity as several of these net players could, in future, may become available for international duty for them. Its a chance to improve and rubbing shoulders with the creme de la creme must not be wasted!
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