IPL to teach other league a lesson

Unlike English football's top flight, the Indian Premier League really does offer a level playing field
The purist may get little pleasure from crude hoicks across the line that sail over boundaries that are shorter than the cheerleaders' mini-skirts, but a fortnight in, there's no denying that the Indian Premier League has thrown up a sports-entertainment cocktail that's threatening to become as popular as the mojito. Much of the pre-tournament talk centred around how it would be cricket's answer to the English Premier League, but with nearly half the season gone, it's easy to spot one big difference.

Unlike the Premier League, which ceased to be a true competition years ago, the IPL really does offer a level playing field. There's no gang of four - two, in reality, since Liverpool and Arsenal aren't currently rich enough to be more than a nuisance - guaranteed all the big trophies, nor are there the sort of mismatches that make you wonder what Derby County are even doing on the same pitch as the top sides.

The lasers, narcissistic celebrities and the dancing girls may have piqued the odd viewer initially but the IPL is now building up a loyal constituency thanks to what happens out in the middle. Apart from Glenn McGrath's immaculate medium-pace for the Delhi Daredevils, the league has been as unpredictable as Rafael Benítez's starting line-ups. Sunday's games were a case in point.

Delhi, one of the favourites to go all the way, journeyed to Mumbai to take on an Indians team that had lost four of five. The Mumbai franchise were still without Sachin Tendulkar, while the disgraced Harbhajan Singh had been removed even from the publicity hoardings promoting the team. And although McGrath was still in Scrooge mood, they battled their way to a score of 162, taking 46 from four Mohammad Asif overs along the way.
Shaun Pollock, who had starred with the bat, then struck with the ball as Delhi were embarrassed and well-beaten. Dhawal Kulkarni, fast-tracked from Mumbai's Under-19s, and Ashish Nehra, a Delhi boy, finished things off as the Indians moved off the bottom to sixth in the table. The cellar space is now occupied by the Deccan Chargers, whose galaxy of big hitters have failed to summon up any sort of consistency. Deccan, the pre-tournament favourites, have one win from five.

The other match was even more intriguing. Chennai's Super Kings had started with four wins from four before a shock-and-awe job from Delhi's Virender Sehwag destroyed them in Chennai. Their opponents on Sunday, the Rajasthan Royals, were the competition's surprise package. The franchise had cost $44m less than the Mumbai one, but with Shane Warne intent on showing why he's the best captain that Australia never had (11 ODIs don't really count, do they?) they had reeled off four in a row after losing their opener to Delhi.

Contrary to the old cliché, Chennai knew exactly what hit them. Pakistan's Sohail Tanvir, who troubled India's batsmen late last year, appears to bowl off the wrong foot like Mike Proctor and Max Walker, and his skiddy pace brooked no answers on a helpful pitch. A line-up missing Hayden and Hussey (recalled for national duty) didn't even last 20 overs, and the Jaipur-based Royals knocked off the 109 required to cruise to the top of the table. Should they stay there, it might make for the greatest sports story since Jack Walker's millions and Kenny Dalglish's nous provided a prologue to the Premier League becoming the plaything of two or three clubs.

If you want reasons why the IPL has been so competitive, they're not hard to find. The salary cap, $5m a season, prevents teams stockpiling talent in the manner of Milan in the 1990s and Chelsea today. The more big names you invest in, the more you compromise with the rest of your combination. Jaipur's success had been based around two big names, Warne and Graeme Smith, those with potential desperate to prove themselves, Shane Watson and Tanvir, and young Indians who are living a dream merely by playing at this level, Siddharth Trivedi, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja.

The salary cap goes hand-in-hand with the restrictions on foreign players. All eight teams have between seven and nine in their squad, but only four can play in any given game. Sure, the quality may be enhanced with more big names, but you certainly wouldn't get capacity crowds for every game in Jaipur if Warne was leading a motley crew from Yorkshire, Victoria and Western Province. As Sanjay Manjrekar, a solid presence from the days before cricket became the new cinema, is fond of saying: "It's a big myth that Indians love cricket. They love Indian cricket, and cricketers."

The Indian stars, whether that be Dhoni in Chennai, Sourav Ganguly in Kolkata or the absent Tendulkar in Mumbai, have been central to the publicity machine. The foreign contingent, save for Warne whose aura appears to transcend national boundaries, are seen merely as the chocolate topping. Divorced from the local element, the concept wouldn't work. You certainly wouldn't get full crowds as Arsenal do at the Emirates, with not an Englishman in sight.

The faces of the fans are also changing. On a flight last week, a petite investment banker spoke to me earnestly about how Chennai would cope with the loss of Hussey, Hayden and Jacob Oram (badly). And soon after, my mum called from a train station for a score update. The old-timers may scoff at this new samosa brigade (the Indian equivalent of the Roy Keane jibe) but they certainly make for a welcome change from the idiots that spew vile abuse from the stands. And for that, and a league where everyone appears capable of beating everyone else, we should be grateful.