Cover Points

The Economic Times reports that the IPL is doing very well in television ratings, perhaps because it's really a reality show?

Equating IPL to a ‘reality show’, Vodafone marketing head Harit Nagpal said: “We invested in IPL anticipating such ratings. The format is such that it combines the largest reality show in this country backed by Bollywood entertainment.” Commenting on the sustainability of the event, Mr Nagpal said: “I’m sure people who have stakes in the game will do everything possible to make it work.”

D.S. Henry has his usual thoughtful daily round-up of people to watch out for. Srikanth writes about the lack of big pay-offs for all that money that was thrown around on individual players:

In general, the big money winners have not recorded anything out of the ordinary yet barring possibly McCullum and Ishant Sharma. On the contrary, some of the icons have been more of an embarrassment to their respective teams. Captains of Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers come to mind.

And Samir Chopra suggests that it's too late in the day for him to generate an interest in watching Twenty20 cricket:

I wouldn't begrudge the new generation of cricket fans the opportunity to develop an entirely new set of dreams, fantasies and hopes, all centered around a different version of the game. All I can do is hope that test cricket will not be completely annihlated by this form.