T20 Legacies of 2023

Hola Readers!!!

Welcome back to the sports blog!!!

I know I’ve been sitting quiet for the last 3 months, and I assure y’all that more than enough content is gonna come right up your alley to compensate for that! In this article, I’ve tried to come up with a gist of all the franchise based cricketing action that has happened since the start of this year, and trust me that’s a lot! With less than a day go for the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League to start, we’ll be looking at the global impact of this League on the T20 format of the game, how it has given rise to various franchise based leagues around the world, and the significance it holds in every such league.

So, let’s get started!!

"Arambikalama...?" = Shall we begin..?

The month of January started with 2 major T20 leagues kicking off in their respective inaugural editions, one in the UAE, and another in South Africa. The UAE based league was the International League T20 [ILT20]. It consisted of 6 teams - Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, MI Emirates, Dubai Capitals, Desert Vipers, Gulf Giants and Sharjah Warriors. 

Yes, you guessed it right!! As the name suggests, the first 3 teams which I’ve listed out are indeed owned by the same owners as that of 3 IPL franchises [KKR, MI and DC respectively]. 

Desert Vipers is owned by Lancer Capital, the owner of the Manchester United football team [one of the bidders for the 2 new teams in IPL 2022]; Gulf Giants is owned by Adani Group [again, one of the bidders last year in IPL]; Sharjah Warriors is owned by Capri Globals, a party whom we'll encounter later in the article as well. 

So you see?! In some way or the other, the owner of every team in the ILT20 is related to the IPL!!! The league went on through the month of February, with the Gulf Giants emerging victorious as the inaugural champions [One place at least where Mr. Adani can smile about in recent times :) ]

Moving on to the South African League. The SA20 kicked off almost parallel with the ILT20. This once again had 6 teams, but the sheer direct involvement of the IPL franchises was overwhelming in this League. The teams were Joburg Super Kings, MI Cape Town, Pretoria Capitals, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Durban Supergiants, and Paarl Royals. I'll leave it to you folks to figure out which franchise owned which team (By now you should be able to do that - if not, read it from the top). 

Sunrisers Eastern Cape won the inaugural edition, which also resulted in its Captain Aiden Markram being made the Captain of its IPL franchise as well. The one thing I loved about this league was that it was stopped midway, just so that an international schedule of SA vs England could be accommodated. This mutual respect and harmony between league and international cricket is what's ideal for the cricketing world, and the SA20 beautifully showcased it by this small gesture. 

Ok enough about men's cricket. The last two months have been nothing short of splendid for women's cricket, especially Indian women. After winning the ICC Women's U19 T20 Trophy under Shafali Varma's captaincy, the Indian team was all geared up to participate in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup. We played valiantly well against every team we encountered, and we had match winning performers in ever game - Shafali Varma, Vice Captain Smrithi Mandhana, Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Renuka Singh Thakur, Deepti Sharma, Shika Pandey - to name a few. 

As is the case with every major ICC tournament that Indian women have played, we reached the finals, and as usual, we were up against the Australians. Led by their decorated captain Meg Lanning, the Aussies were actually supposed to lose this one until a freak run out where Harman's bat got stuck in the pitch, making her fall just short of the crease, turned the tide in their favor and made them win. This was indeed a heart wrenching loss for the Indian Women, yet again to Australia. But, little did Harmanpreet Kaur know that her sadness would be replaced with glorious joy in just another month…

During the time of the World Cup, a legendary move was made by the BCCI, something that would change the face of Women's cricket forever. The Women's Premier League was all set to be inaugurated, with the auctions for teams and players taking place in rapid succession. 5 teams were up for the grabs. RCB, MI and DC bought teams under the same names, while UP Warriorz was bought by Capri Globals (Remember these guys from ILT20?) and Gujarat Giants were bought by the Adani Group. A plethora of cricketing action ensued in the month of March. 

The inaugural season came up with such memorable moments and players performed so scintillatingly well that its popularity achieved great heights, despite it being just the first season. Personally, I was a little disappointed at the fact that only 2 teams were led by Indian players (Harman for MI and Smrithi for RCB), while 3 teams were lead by Australians.

After 20 matches, with each team playing the other twice, DC qualified directly to the final, while 2nd placed MI defeated 3rd placed UPW to reach there. The final was between MI, lead by Harmanpreet Kaur, and DC, lead by Meg Lanning!!! The same captains who faced off in the World Cup final less than a month ago were yet again up against each other. This time though, the results were opposite, with Harmanpreet leading MI gloriously to win the Inaugural edition of the extravagant Women's Premier League. 

Phew! So much cricket!! Well, it's just gonna get more and more! 

The Indian Premier League is ready to kick off its 16th edition from Friday, 31st March 2023, and exciting games are coming up!! Lots of cricketing action coming your way, both on TV as well as on the blog! Stay tuned for regular, non- cliché updates from the IPL 2023

Until next week, this is your Sports Blogger signing off

Subrahmanyam