Recently I happen to read in one of the columns where the Master Blaster of Indian cricket mentioned that Viru and Gauti are going through ‘fatigue’. Will they therefore be able to deliver the power and energy as they are the much talked about world opening pair in the shorter and shortest version of the game? In that case, even fatigue can kill or bring down the viewership of watching cricket on television. Interesting analogy- let us dwell on this.

What is more attention-grabbing is 90% of the inventory has already been sold by ESPN for the T- 20 world cup where big brands are going to pump good money to leverage their brands through this world cup. One answer to this could be India is the current world cup T-20 champion and in the world cup T-20 we have only one Indian team playing the tournament unlike the IPL league where the Indian cricketers are distributed across different clubs.

There is hardly any gap between the just concluded IPL -2 and the beginning of the T-20 world cup cricket. Getting back to form after some dismal performance by some of the players will tough challenge. Weather should not play a spoil sport as invariably the early part of June it is likely to rain constantly. ( Hope that does not happen ).Various statistics, research and comments from several experts clearly say that IPL 2 did not get the kind of viewer ship as compared to the inaugural tournament. How many of them really watched a complete match? The Indian flavor and razzmatazz at the ground were missing. But the broadcasters don’t agree as they strongly feel that the IPL 2 was a success. We could see the telecom brands dominate this IPL 2 and each brand had to display their creativity power to create an impact in a power packed set of advertisements that kept on appearing. Incidentally most advertisers also seemed to be happy for being present in IPL 2.

Now will the viewership dip? The answer is yes and no. The initial matches may not fetch the high numbers but as the tournament progresses, we will observe the excitement catch up and if India does well, the premium for spots for the penultimate rounds will just shoot up. The question of fatigue is debatable as the shorter version of the game is more of entertainment and less of cricket and with no great programs available marketers will find this has a safe bet. Also the multiplex issue and no big banner movies in the pipeline viewers will have no other choice but to be glued with the idiot box. With T-20 positioned more as ENTERTAINMENT the fatigue level will not creep in so hard. It’s like watching the great SHOLAY umpteen number of times.

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