IPL games start at 7:30 PM Indian Time which is alright but they invariably finish between 11:30 PM and 11:45 PM Indian Time which is certainly not acceptable. That is a ridiculous 4 – 4:15 hours. T20 games when they were started were promoted as 3-hour games. It was the reason this format was promoted to be included in the Olympics because let us face it, Test cricket and ODI cricket will never be included in the Olympics because of the duration. However, what is happening at the IPL, not just this year, but over the last several years is simply unacceptable. There are multiple reasons for this. Let me offer my two cents about the ridiculous timing of IPL.
IPL is for the Indian spectators and by the Indian spectators. Australian cricket supporters or English cricket supporters or any of the other cricket supporters will not be queuing up to watch IPL for it is not their tournament and only a handful of their own cricketers participate. They will probably be interested in the scores but never more than that. It is similar to English County Championship where foreign players are involved but Indians or Sri Lankans or the Aussies do not follow the games. At the most, we will all restrict ourselves to how players from our nations have performed. Whether they have justified the money that they were paid.
Just a couple of examples. RCB took 122 minutes to complete their quota against Mumbai Indians against the IPL stipulated time of 90 minutes. Gujarat Titans took 120 minutes against CSK. 30 minutes above the expected time of completion is mindboggling. The IPL management and the Indian board must take immediate steps to speed up the game. By several notches.
What is the impact of a late finish?
“Let’s speed up the pace of play,” Buttler tweeted, along with a folded hands emoji and the IPL hashtag.
It is extremely difficult for Indian fans to watch a game till its end. In 2018, Indian Express reported that viewership for any game began to dip beyond 10:45 PM. The scenario was dire beyond 11:00 PM when the viewership dropped drastically. Except for the die-hard fans of a particular city, the rest will go to bed irrespective of who is batting or bowling at that point. The children will have to go to school. The adults will have to go to work. Everyone needs time to rest. Already, the 11PM timeslot is too late, especially after a busy day at work or in school. The body needs energy for the next day and a good night’s sleep is essential for that.
It is time the IPL management wakes up to the reality and quicken the game. When someone like Jos Buttler, who himself is in the middle, tweets for the game to be moved along, you know that the IPL needs to change.
What can be done?
First, advance the start time to 7 PM. I know the time has already been advanced from 8:00 PM to 7:30 PM but the games must start 30 minutes earlier.
Second, the advertisement breaks for 2:30 minutes in 2 segments in both the innings must be done away with. Yeah I know it is called Strategic Break but we all know the reason. It was created right from IPL’s initiation solely for the purpose of advertisements thereby earning more money for the board. They are already rolling in billions. How much more money do they need? The greed of the BCCI does not have any boundaries.
Third, it is insane to allow the 3rd umpire to rule wide and no-ball. The game as it is, is quite lengthy. Why add time on top of that? Do away with that one and return the decision to the on-field umpire.
Four, the opponent team must be given 15 additional runs for every over bowled beyond the stipulated time on top of the runs that they score. The same rule applies to the team bowling second. The moment the time is crossed, 15 runs get added which will bring down the runs required drastically or could even mean they have lost.
Wrapping up the ridiculous timing of IPL
Already, the IPL is a lengthy tournament. 2.5 months of the same, boring, cliched game. It must not test our patience even further. There will usually be a lot of viewers during the early stage. Interest will wane during the middle phase and will pick up during the playoffs. IPL will run the risk of losing a lot of viewers if it doe not change its ways.
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