1
First held in 2008, IPL became immensely popular and has emerged as a brand. This year, due to the general elections the venue had to be shifted to South Africa. It’s a blessing in disguise as we’ve got an opportunity to showcase the brand IPL to the world. The shifting of venue would provide our players a great opportunity to get exposure to the fast and nippy wickets of South Africa. In fact, the venues should shift to different cricket-playing countries each year just like the good old Russian Circus with Russian and Indian artists, which used to mesmerise us. Even otherwise, except for the few thousands who get to watch it live at the venue, the matches today are mostly watched by millions of viewers globally on TV, including India. IPL is thus globally Indian.”
Akshita Bhatnagar, Class X-M
Delhi Public School, RK Puram

2
The much-anticipated IPL has returned, but not with much of a bang, because it remains no more Indian. It’s become an international event with world players of different countries contesting on a single platform, sharing experience with youngsters and of course playing world-class cricket. The passion and zeal which last year’s IPL has spread worldwide has no more remained Indian. The upcoming elections have certainly done some good. Even though it does not mean we are getting a more confident and intelligent government this year, it has been able to broadcast talented new players at a global level, ahead of the T-20 World Cup later this year. However back at home, it has lost the dedication and fervour that it had last year. Teams like Deccan Chargers and Knight Riders now just remain brand names. Too much publicity and rumours have now entered the scenario, making IPL lose its touch of originality and novelty. The upcoming T-20 World Cup also invites people to look towards this action-packed tournament.
Apoorva Somani, Class X-A
DPS Sushant Lok

3
IPL is Indian Premier League even if it is not happening in India. Many years ago, Indian Overseas Bank had no branch

outside India.
Ankur Mittal, Class X
SD Public School, East Punjabi Bagh

4
Cricket — a sport that Indians duly worship was revamped and re-launched in a new fashion for the first time in 2008. The Indian Premier League, popularly known as IPL is a fast paced T-20 format game which youngsters all over the world enjoy. The IPL was a huge success in India last year especially due to its Bollywood-style cricket flavour. Even though IPL still retains this flavour, it has not been as successful in India as it had been last year — one of the basic reasons being the shifting of the venue from India to South Africa. It no longer is the Indian Premier League for the Indian masses, but the Foreign Premier League.
Shreya Kak , Class VI-A
Apeejay School, Saket

5
“South Africa to Host IPL 2009”, captured headlines sometime ago. Young fans were enraged and cursed the fact that the general elections were falling at the same time. Some politicians even thought this would display India’s inefficiency to the world. But as planned, the IPL did start with full swing in South Africa. And to many people’s surprise, the majority of the crowd present there were Indians. And as expected, so were the number of people watching it in India. So it didn’t really matter where or how IPL took place; it had captured so many hearts that no matter what stood in their way people made it a point not to miss the games. Besides, people in India preferred to watch it at home and got the same enjoyment they would have got in the live game. The eyes of many were glued to their television sets and the spirit of the young and old remained the same. Though some feel it would have been even more memorable for the majority if it was in India, Indian or not Indian, IPL will be still watched with the same passion and enthusiasm all over the country.
Sweta Saravanan, Class X-D
DPS Sushant Lok

6
The ear-splitting roar in Sharmaji’s household still surpasses that in the Durban stadium when Yuvraj hits a six. Bhatiaji has already sent his mother, wife, best friend, ex-best friend, aunt and himself to the hospital, and is now running out of excuses for leaves to watch the matches. Mrs Iyer still prays for the Chennai Super Kings, and Mrs Rathore for the Rajasthan Royals. My own eleven-year-old brother agrees to study for four hours straight (an unprecedented feat for him), just because my mother promises to let him watch both the matches of the day back to back, later. Can the Indian-ness of the Indian Premier League be in doubt? Ever? The players are Indian, the prayers are Indian, the sponsors, the satta-waalas and the funny wig-waalas in the audience, the banners, even the theme songs are all typically Indian. Whether in India or outside, the Indian Premier League is essentially an Indian tamasha, and despite the presence of a few motley ‘phoren’ players, ‘phoren’ cheerleaders, and a ‘phoren’ pitch, the heart of the IPL is essentially true Indian gold.
Vrinda Dubey, Class X-B
Apeejay School, Pitampura

7
It is Indian Premier League even if it is not happening in India. We saw various companies going global but it has been amazing to see Indian Premier League going global too.

Cricket is one thing which brings TRPs of all programmes down, including the favourite daily soaps of our mothers and grandmothers. It also brings the whole family, friends and foes, together to watch these awesome games. It has been no less this year.

We saw Indians in South Africa cheering for their favourite teams. Not only that, there were so many South Africans (who wouldn’t even know whether Punjab was in north or south of India) cheering for their teams till their voices got hoarse.