It’s a very polarising subject, much like marmite – you either love it or you hate it, but either way, the IPL has established it is a global competition that is here to stay. 15 years from its launch, it has morphed through its various avatars into its current form, the cheerleaders have disappeared, but the big hitting has stayed. Some franchises have come and gone, others have stayed, some have had an enforced time away from the tournament, others have rebranded themselves, some achieve serial success, and some are just finding their feet in their first season in the competition.

This year’s IPL seems a bit different to me, and I have been struggling to put a finger on it. With the two new franchises announcing their arrival in style, the established trophy winners are struggling to move away from the bottom of the league table, much to the dismay of their fanbase. Based on the evidence of what’s transpired over the initial weeks of the 2022 edition, it does appear that any team is capable of beating any other team on a given day. As one captain mentioned in his post-match interview, their team could have lost 4 close games and found themselves near the bottom of the table, but fine margins and luck contributed to their wins in each of these games, so they find themselves at the top of the table. Close matches seem to be the order of the day, almost scripted to perfection. There has been plenty of analysis and opinion dissecting aspects of the toss, strategies supporting setting targets or chasing, effects of ground conditions and boundary distances, and, of course, the ubiquitous commercialisation of each aspect of the game (I’m not sure I’d ever get behind that)

While all that is true, here is what bothers me.

Each franchise is desperate to build a loyal fanbase as part of their business strategy to promote ticket sales, merchandise sales and sponsor endorsements. Much like the time-tested strategies followed by football clubs in Europe, IPL franchises hope to build recognisable brands not just in India but around the world. With a big reshuffle of players at this year’s auction, partially to accommodate the two new franchises, we see familiar faces in unfamiliar kit, and while that has always happened in smaller measure in earlier years, this is starkly noticeable this year.

While the die-hard fans of a successful franchise are keen to see their franchise do well, I’m sure a significant proportion would rather see their heroes do well too, even if they don different colours. In a showdown between a batsman who has been part of your franchise’s success over the years, but steps into battle as an adversary against one of your bowlers, loyalties surely must be split. In fact, we even saw two brothers facing off against each other this year when they have gone through many seasons as teammates. From all indications, it looks like this is here to stay.

National teams have identity, these franchise teams may just be trading theirs in pursuit of something more ephemeral. Have they gone a step too far?