How good is the IPL?

Well with every edition of the Indian Premier League bringing in more and more people to the stadiums to watch not only their team play but also to catch the excitement no matter which team is playing against which other team. Despite most of the cities not having a team of their own and in some cases though the stadium that would be playing doesn't involve a team of his choice, there has been no stopping of fans from coming back early from the office to watch the action. But, one has to understand whether the IPL is exciting really or is it an overdose?

When the first match of the IPL's maiden venture took off with the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers fighting it out, it was as though the launch of the IPL was justified when Brendon McCullum belted the Royal Challengers' bowlers the way he wanted which saw him eventually scoring an unbeaten 158 runs from 73 balls at a strike rate of 213. This was also the fastest hundred in the IPL which is as obvious with that being the maiden encounter. Had anyone been asked about the longevity of this record, one would just give a reply that it would be a record as long as the game continues to exist.

But, in the very same edition, there was Shaun Marsh who scored 115 runs from 69 balls. And then a couple of matches later, Adam Gilchrist becomes the batsman to score the fastest IPL hundred surpassing his Australian as well as IPL team mate Andrew Symonds who had held the record until then after grabbing the same from Mike Hussey. This happened to be Jayasuriya's in the same edition and finally, the record is now held by Yousuf Pathan when he scored the same from 37 balls. So has been the case when it comes to the fastest fifties in the IPL.

However, with regards to bowling there have been just two five wicket hauls, coincidentally both of them belonging to players from the sub continent in Sohail Tanvir and India's Anil Kumble. This was in the previous editions of the IPL and this time, there is yet to be a 5 wicket haul. In the bowling department, hat-tricks are the most cheered by the spectators. But, one has to wonder as to what fun can anyone derive when there are so many of them in the IPL. There was Laxmipathy Balaji who took the first hat-trick in IPL which saw Amit Mishra also doing the same.

If anybody thinks that these are the things that need to be applauded for, why not set up a match wherein some of them consists of just big hits from batsmen and some of them only hat-tricks if at all entertaining the crowd is on the top of anyone's agenda. Things can be cheered only when they are natural and rare unlike it is happening in the IPL where a team that has a batsman scoring a fastest hundred ends up in the losing side and a record today becomes history tomorrow. Records are unusual achievements like taking a hat-trick which should happen once in a blue moon and not daily. If this is the case, that need not be called a record.