IPL Has Made All Three Formats More Competitive: League Chairman Arun Dhumal

The Indian Premier League has not only played an important role in talent identification over the years but has also made all three formats of the game more competitive, league chairman Arun Dhumal said on Friday. Since its maiden season in 2008, the IPL and T20 cricket have grown exponentially. Several players including the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh have gone on to get the coveted India cap after stellar performances in the lucrative league.

"IPL has done a phenomenal job as far as the identification of new boys is concerned. We have seen, every season you will have very talented youngsters coming in like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh," Dhumal told PTI Video in an exclusive chat here.

"They have then played for India also, so that way IPL has turned out to be a great tournament for the young talent and hopefully this season is going to be no different," he added.

The IPL has become the world's second-richest sports league in terms of per match value, behind USA's National Football League (NFL) and Dhumal feels the league has a had a positive effect on the Test and ODI formats as well.

"Definitely IPL in the last 15 years has become the second most important league in the world, it is the second most valuable league.You can imagine how cricket has tremendously shifted post-IPL, we have seen Test matches yielding more results, ODI's becoming more competitive." "Some two decades back 250-300 used to be a good score now you have 400 happening regularly, we all celebrated when Sachin scored his first 200 in an ODI game and after that there has been so much that has come, and thanks to this T20 format and this IPL coming into play," Dhumal added.

The upcoming season of the IPL is set to begin on March 22 and the league will be held entirely in the country despite the coinciding general elections. "We have come out with the schedule for about two weeks only as of now and we are waiting for the election commission to come out with the election schedule.

"As and when that comes, accordingly we will work out the schedule for the rest of the tournament, hopefully, we will get a good number of games in Dharamshala also."

England and India are playing the final Test of the five-match series here. Although it is a dead rubber as the hosts have taken a 3-1 lead in the ongoing series, it is a milestone game for senior India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and England wicket-keeper batter Jonny Bairstow, who are playing their 100th Test.

"The final Test of this series is taking place here and we are lucky that it's going to be a historical Test given it's Ashwin's 100th, Bairstow's 100th and most likely Anderson will get 700 wickets and it's starting on a day when Sunil Gavaskar scored 10,000 runs so it's historic in that sense also," Dhumal observed.