How will IPL 2018 be different from its earlier versions?

By Anand Vasu

The more some things change, the more they stay the same. The Indian Premier League, was conceived as a cuttingedge tournament, something so audacious in scope that it had not been attempted in any seriousness till Lalit Modi came along. With the might of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) behind him, and promises of multi-million dollar contracts, cricket’s Mary Shelley unleashed a summer Frankenstein on the world.

In the years that the IPL has been in existence it has done many things. It has made millionaires of journeymen cricketers, it has given coaches a new stage to showcase their wares, it has allowed limited cricketers to earn massive paychecks in the auction and, it has held a mirror to the cricket world. In 2008, when the IPL began, there was an air of freshness, a complete newness to the tournament. Even the people involved in running the tournament had no idea how it might pan out.


Cut to 2018, and there are some maddeningly repeatable things: MS Dhoni is back at Chennai Super Kings; Shane Warne is hugging the Rajasthan Royals; Gautam Gambhir is a Delhi Daredevil, captain, at that; Yuvraj Singh wears the pink and silver of Kings XI Punjab.

This is exactly what the cricketing landscape was like in 2008. When the fresh season begins, there are many things that will be, and feel, different, and here are the most critical ones:

A MOSTLY INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE
There hasn’t been a single edition of the tournament when each team was captained by an Indian. 2018 came close, with Sunrisers Hyderabad losing David Warner to Sandpapergate. Bhuvneshwar Kumar might well have been given charge of the team, but Kane Williamson was the management’s choice. With the IPL being so much about workload management and recovery, perhaps the franchise believed that it was not a good idea to add the captaincy burden to their top medium-pacer.

NOT A PENNY MORE…
And not a penny less than Rs 7.2 crore for Archer. Not Jeffrey, but Jofra. At 23, this allrounder with a fluid action and bat-speed that is typical to his hometown of Barbados, is not eligible to play international cricket. Having chosen to qualify for England, turning his back on West Indies, Archer can showcase his talents in T20 leagues even before he is available for national selection. Archer, who was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals, and is sure to be central to their plans, described his IPL selection as a “lifechanging” moment.

RETURN OF THE KING
The debate over Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s future in Indian cricket has reached fever pitch, especially after Dinesh Karthik proved to be such a star finisher in the Nidahas Trophy tri-series in Sri Lanka. But, when Dhoni marched to the podium in army colours to receive his Padma Bhushan award, the sight of him in uniform, and his loyalty to the cause, was something else. Similarly, when the Chennai Super Kings take the field, the fact that they have their lion in yellow in harness means the world to their loyal fans.

DRS: DECISION REVIEW SILLINESS
The Decision Review System has been in place in different series in cricket for a while now. Twenty20 cricket, which was designed for pace and ease of viewing, was exempt from these stoppages and delays in the game. Yet, the IPL, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to introduce this form of adjudication in the 2018 edition. How will this change things? Previously rain-interrupted late games would finish after midnight. Now we may have night-day matches instead of day-night.

A TIME TO PLAN, A TIME TO CHANGE
For the first time in the IPL’s history, teams will have an opportunity to re-think their theories and strategies in the middle of their campaign. The Governing Council has allowed a five-day transfer window in the middle of the tournament, where uncapped players who have featured in two or fewer games, to be picked up by other teams. This means that each team has a chance to boost its reserves, while players who were simply warming the bench get more chances of actually playing. That can only be a good thing.