Sunday 26 April 2015 13:17, UK
In the first of his IPL blogs, Sky Sports' Matt Floyd talks of the noise from the Indian crowds and tells us his favourite team...
So the IPL is in full flow and we at Sky Sports have had our first taste of it. I, for one, am hungry for more.
While the cricket has been at times superb, it’s the whole package of this event that really captures the imagination. The soundtrack to the IPL is provided by the fans in the stadium, perhaps the single most important element of the whole thing.
Rather than just a loud applause or collective gasp at something special being done there is a constant hum of horns or chanting which means there is never a lull in the atmosphere.
Mark Butcher told us on air he’s never been in such loud stadiums during his long cricket career both on and off the pitch and even through the television you get a sense of the volume when a crowd is screaming ‘RCB…RCB…’ or CSK... CSK.. ’.
The music in between deliveries is a mix of local & western and with all the crowd noise, they have to crank the bass up a notch. Marvellous. Bollywood stars and businessmen oversee this feast for the senses as if Roman Emperors watching the Games. It is fascinating. Oh and the cricket isn’t bad either.
Delhi Daredevils were involved in three last-ball finishes and one off the penultimate ball in their first four games. The pitches have been good, there have been only two scores under 150 when batting first in the first third of the tournament, and batsmen have taken advantage of small playing surfaces to regularly deposit the ball into the stands.
That’s not to say bowlers can’t dominate themselves, as Ashish Nehra showed with his fantastic spell of 4-10 against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The Big Bash is breathing down the IPL’s neck in terms of standard but there can be no doubt that the overseas players are far superior in India. You can field four of them as well (only two in the Bash) and some teams have a ridiculous pool of talent to select from.
Sunrisers Hyderabad for example have to pick four from David Warner, Dale Steyn, Kane Williamson, Eoin Morgan, Trent Boult, Ravi Bopara and Moises Henriques. If they get to the knockout stage you can potentially add Kevin Pietersen to the mix and you have one seriously difficult selection meeting!
I wonder what coach Tom Moody said to Steyn when they left him out of the first 3 games – ‘erm, sorry Dale, I know you are widely regarded as the best bowler in the world but...’.
Chennai and Rajasthan have been the early pace setters and I must confess, I am a Super Kings fan. My mum is from the state of Tamil Nadu (Chennai is the capital) and I have family over there so have no choice really.
That said, I will of course be remaining totally impartial when in the studio, sorry Mum! I doubt I’m as big a fan as Shane Warne is of the Royals though. I couldn’t believe how up and down he was when they were playing and clearly there is still a strong connection there since he captained an unfancied side to the inaugural title back in 2008.
I have to say so far his prediction of them being a team who consistently punch above their weight and win the close games has also been spot on.
I admit that when the IPL started I was a tad sceptical. I always regarded myself as a traditionalist and still think there is nothing quite as thrilling as a tense period of Test cricket when things suddenly start to happen. I also wasn’t sure whether it would be as big a commercial success as many thought it would be and was unsure how seriously the top players would take it.
Eight years in, I have changed my tune. The IPL is a fantastic spectacle and despite a few hiccups along the way (spot-fixing etc) it can only be regarded as an overwhelming success.
We are only a third of the way into the 2015 edition so if you haven’t already, sit down and cast your eyes over the greatest the show on earth (in cricket terms anyway).
Watch every game of the 2015 IPL live on Sky Sports. And keep checking skysports.com/cricket throughout the tournament for more blogs from Matt Floyd.
