I watched the first five or six seasons of the tournament and loved everything about it. The crowds, the stunning and well maintained cricket grounds, the world class commentators, and, of course, the best players from around the globe made it a fantastic experience. But at some point, I started to lose interest. I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but it was around the time when teams began chasing improbable targets, making bowlers seem almost irrelevant. The tournament started favoring batsmen heavily, and I struggled to stay engaged.
I found myself wondering why I stopped watching, and realized it wasn’t just the high scoring games. There were several factors that contributed to my diminishing interest:
1 - Length of the Tournament
The tournament’s two month span is hard to keep up with, especially when juggling work and other responsibilities. Following matches for such an extended period isn’t practical for me.
2 - High-Scoring Matches
It felt like bowlers were reduced to mere bowling machines, placed to help batsmen practice hitting sixes and fours. The excitement of a balanced contest between bat and ball was missing, and I didn’t enjoy watching matches where bowlers had little to no impact.
3 - Questioning the Format’s Credibility
I struggled to respect the format, as players became superstars based solely on their T20 performances, while lacking the skills necessary for the more traditional formats of the game.
Growing up, I loved India’s team, and the rivalry with Pakistan never really affected me. I supported India as my second favorite team after Pakistan throughout the ’90s. Despite their struggles back then, I found them relatable because they looked like us, spoke the same language, and we shared a cultural connection, including Bollywood movies (though I’ve watched only a handful in the last decade since they don’t seem to make good films anymore).
Nowadays, I only tune in for the playoffs or when Dhoni’s team is playing. I’ve largely lost interest in the league, perhaps because there’s too much T20 cricket everywhere now. It feels like I’ve had an overdose of this format, and it no longer feels like real cricket to me. Maybe someday my interest in the IPL will return and I will start following it as closely as I used to. With India being the heart of cricket these days, the atmosphere there is just incredible and the energy of the crowd is truly unmatched.
