Five years on, IPL mojo rising

When the Indian Premier League was initially conceptualised and then unveiled amid great fanfare, there was excitement, yes, but there was also great apprehension. For one thing, the Twenty20 game had yet to intrude upon the imagination of the average Indian cricket fan.

For another, no one was sure how city-based franchises would be received by audiences. It was a sign of the times that even as the IPL was being launched formally, a new-look Indian team was quietly making its way through the draw at the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa.

In September 2007, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was only a little more than a bit player, so no one raised an eyebrow when he was missing from the official launch. Today, Dhoni is the undisputed superstar of Indian cricket, just as the IPL is the behemoth of domestic leagues worldwide.

It's worth remembering that India were reluctant participants in the first World T20. Indian administrators frowned upon the 20-over version, introduced a decade ago in England to revive waning interests in cricket, dismissing it as a hit-and- giggle routine that the Indian landscape could do without. The emergence of the Indian Cricket League, a rebel tournament, somewhat forced the Board of Control of Cricket in India's hand, but few would have envisaged the runaway success that the IPL has become over the last five seasons. Read more