IPL gives rise to new leagues within http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750
The roaring success and the popularity of the Indian Premier League have led to the birth of a few regional leagues such as the Karnataka Premier League, the Maharashtra Premier League and the newborn, the Jharkhand Premier League. The MPL has already had two seasons and KPL 2 will get underway on the 18th of September.
Both the KPL and the MPL are replicas of the IPL, with teams sold to private franchisees and a player auction before the tournament. The KPL has 8 franchises and will have a round robin format and the top teams will qualify for the semi finals. Last year’s games were played only in Bangalore and Mysore but this time around there would be two more centers in Hubli and Manipal, the university town.
A good opportunity to showcase regional talent
This is a great opportunity for players from different parts of the state to exhibit their talents and the ones who perform will even have a chance of getting picked in an IPL team. A similar view was expressed by Brijesh Patel, the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. Players from Bangalore have dominated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Karnataka-c801 cricket for so long and KPL can give a chance to the other cities and towns, a share of the limelight.
The MPL has certainly provided that to players from different parts of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Maharashtra-c811. The second season, which took place in the month of May, was covered by Neo Sports and all the games were played at the D Y Patil Stadium, which hosted the IPL final. This was a huge step as this made the League popular and also brought in some revenue which would help the League grow more. But most importantly, players made an impression and were picked by IPL sides.
Aditya Dole who is from Pratapgad Warriors in the MPL, played for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harshad-Khadiwale-c1539, was part of the Kolkata Knightriders squad.
JPL
The latest addition to these regional leagues is the JPL. The success of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jharkhand-c800.
JPL will have five franchises and the Jharkhand State Cricket Association is hoping that the state’s top 100 cricketers will be part of the league. The JSCA even expects that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 would be part of one the franchises and will play in at least one game depending up on his schedule. That would definitely be a great factor in roping in sponsors and getting the attention of the people.
Still in the IPL's long shadow
However, not everything is rosy. The quality of the leagues can be much better. Of course, there are players who are very good but the overall standard of play has a lot of room for improvement. The leagues have modeled themselves after the IPL, but have not managed to become popular like it, even in their own states. The MPL 2, though was televised, had an empty stadium throughout the season.
One of the team owners even said that the association with the MPL has done very little for his core business and that the present model will not yield any returns. It is clear that the advertisement has to go a notch up and the PR campaigns have to be better. But these leagues seem to be doing well on at least one objective: acting as feeders for the IPL. Probably, if they continue doing that they will certainly keep moving in the right direction.
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