With the 15th IPL season commencing soon, we cannot help but look back at the years gone by and ponder upon the impact IPL has had on Indian Cricket and not just cricket but how sports are looked at in general in the post IPL phase.
The IPL started in the year 2008 following the much-celebrated win in the T20 world cup in 2007. A league in its initial years that was celebrated because of its competitive nature has grown to become an audition turf for budding cricketers to enter the Indian International team circuit. IPL laid the foundation for India in being a sports nation.
What is it that IPL has done differently to boost Indian Cricket?
This is the question that is often raised about the league because even before the IPL the domestic setup for Indian Cricket was well established and well catered. There was a definite structure to a player’s journey before getting selected to play at the highest level. So, why IPL, did Indian Cricket see a sudden emergence of local players? The reason simply being that the IPL provided an extremely popular and competitive platform for players from all strata of the society to show their skills. It gave the small town & grassroots players an equal turf to play on.
Because of the IPL, the player benefitted in two ways, one being the recognition and income that they earned due to the auction format of the league, and second and the most important being the opportunity to learn from international players who are playing at the top of their careers for their respective countries. IPL helped youngsters interact freely with the champions of champions, observe them and of course play against them, learn from them, thus, enhancing their own skills . With players before the IPL era, we could sense a feeling of intimidation or fear during their debut match, but because of IPL, the fear of playing against a quality International team reduced as our players had any experience of playing against them and also an experience of playing under pressure situations.
What IPL did in the true sense is that it unleashed the local talent and empowered the players with financial means as well as access to top-quality infrastructure. In the initial years of the league, the fans were interested in seeing the camaraderie between the players playing at the International level, and as the series aged, the attention of the fans, as well as the participating franchises, has shifted to finding the next-gen player for India. Every year, with every passing season of IPL, people have started showing keen interest in the upcoming talent. This has led to the empowerment of the Under-19 circuit of BCCI and has also led to the emergence of the India A team.
Apart from Cricket, IPL has also shown light to many other sports in India. As it was the first-ever successful league tournament in India, its impact helped other sports and sporting authorities to come up with their own leagues such as the Pro Kabaddi League or the Indian super league.
This has inspired local sporting authorities and sports enthusiast organizations to not only start their own leagues but also stream their games to the world and SportVot is helping them to execute this dream and enjoy all the grandeur of the IPL for their matches as we provide with premium features that can elevate every match to an IPL or a World cup level match.
That’s why we believe that what IPL did to Indian cricket is exactly
what SportVot strives to do to all the sports and all the athletes playing in India. SportVot has built a platform where sporting authorities can stream their domestic tournaments absolutely hassle-free using just a smartphone or any video camera with internet access. The future goal is to provide a platform for every athlete right from the grassroots level to the one playing at the state level or national level to display their skills, engage with fellow athletes and sporting authorities. SportVot strives to put every athlete's name on the map. At the heart of it, SportVot values player development at the grassroots level.
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