There was a lot of confusion regarding whether news agencies will cover the Indian Premier League due to several restrictions by the IPL. Last year also many reputed news agencies like Reuters, Associated Press etc. did not cover the Indian Premier League after they did not agree to the severe restrictions on distribution of images by News Agencies. The IPL management had initially told that they would keep the same restrictions in place this year too. But News Media Coalition (NMC) had a discussion with DLF IPL yesterday on behalf of News agencies worldwide. And IPL made it terms a bit lenient and removed the clause that stopped news agencies from distributing news and photos to specialized cricket websites. Both IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and executive director of the NMC, Andrew Moger confirmed about the same.
It is a great decision as it will help IPL fans worldwide to get to follow the game without much problem.
Now, IPL management and Lalit Modi has decided to introduce a carnival before the start of the Indian Premier League. This will be perhaps the first carnival in cricket and it would take place at 12 noon on April 16. All the players participating in the IPL and various Bollywood celebrities will take part in the carnival. It will be a grand parade on the streets of Cape Town with all the IPL teams with their own floats and there would be music, Bollywood celebrities and cricketers in this great extravaganza. Lalit Modi said that this will be a unique experience where all the 200 top cricketers from the world would be present in the parade at the same time.
It seems that IPL T20 season 2 has been marketed very well in South Africa and hope that it turns out to a huge success again as the last year. Cricket and Entertainment seems to be mixed very well in this year’s IPL extravaganza too. The ticket sales have also been quite good till now and it seems that Lalit Modi will again have the last laugh.
All the tickets for the IPL T20 season 2 opener in Newlands, Cape Town has supposedly been sold out within two hours today. Most people were quite critical of how the South African people would react to the Indian Premier League after the venue had to be shifted to South Africa due to clash with general elections in India. But if the occupancy of the IPL opener is any hint for the rest of the tournament then it might turn out to be a huge success in SA too. The IPL opener on April 18 would include a grand opening ceremony and two matches back to back. In addition to that there will be the mix of Bollywood and Hollywood in the IPL season 2 opener. IPL has been aggressively promoted amongst the masses and most of the matches has also been organized on cities with huge Indian population. The ticket prices has also been kept quite affordable so that all the South African people can enjoy this extravaganza of cricket and entertainment without burning a hole in their pocket. And this hard work by BCCI and South African Cricket seems to have already shown the results. It was expected that ticket sales in SA might take a few weeks to catch up but the sell out of the tickets in the IPL opener has ended all the negative presumptions. And there has been booking of tickets not only from South Africa but from other countries like England, Middle East and South Africa. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said that IPL T20 season 2 might help them in gaining a global fan base.
Although the full occupancy in the IPL opener cannot guarantee full occupancy for the rest of the matches but it is surely a definite trend that cannot be denied. Let us wish that the occupancy is full in most of the match and IPL T20 season 2 turns out to be a grand success. And whatever we say it seems Lalit Modi always has the laugh laugh.
IPL T20 seems to be developing into the single biggest event in cricket with big bucks following into the game. IPL was a huge success in its first season and it was expected to become even bigger this year in terms of monetary gains. However, IPL T20 season 2 had to change the venue from India to South Africa as it clashed with the Indian General Elections. And IPL has been trying different methods to increase the cash flow so that the tournament remains a huge success like last year or even more.
This has led to a five-minute ‘strategy break’ twice in every match to boost TV advertising revenues. If sources are to be believed, there might be a five minute ‘strategy break’ in the middle of every innings after 10 overs are bowled. This five-minute break might help increasing the IPL television advertising revenues in each game by 30 percent according to estimates. It is notable that Sony Entertainment Television (nowadays renamed to Multi Screen Media) had clinched the domestic telecast rights of IPL T20 season 2 for a staggering Rs. 8200 crore for the next nine years. It is supposed that this five-minute strategy break might have been one of the points in negotiating the deal.
Hope that this new formula works out. Though it is not sure as of now if the five-minute strategy break will really come into effect but only time will tell how efficient will it be if it is introduced when IPL 2 starts later this month.
