Do fans really care about Champions League T20?

I know I shouldn’t be saying this. As a professional cricket journalist, I shouldn’t be turning a blind eye to the ‘excitement’ back in India. I know I should be following the fluctuating fortunes of the ten teams of Champions League Twenty20, searching for answers as to why Chennai Super Kings are holding the wooden spoon in their group. I know I can’t hide behind the excuse of being in England, for I have access to live internet streaming from a number of websites. I know it’s blasphemous for me to silently hope that cricket fans in India snub this tournament and turn their heads towards the English Premier League, Formula One and other exciting fast-food equivalents. Do I feel guilty at my ignorance? No. [caption id=“attachment_100684” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Fans needed a break. There were simply not enough in the stadiums to appreciate the good passages of play. Manjunath Kiran/AFP”]  [/caption] Strangely, India’s most disastrous foreign tour in recent years, which ended just a few weeks ago, had more appeal. The organisers and sponsors would have pitched the Champions League as the perfect anti-depressant to the England tour. However, the response to the tournament so far has confirmed something we already feared. Just as you can’t overcome a hangover by drinking more, you can’t cure a cricket hangover by watching more cricket. Fans needed a break. There were simply not enough in the stadiums to appreciate the good passages of play. I was told that many of the games this season were quite tightly contested. In Planet Cricket, it seems there are no breaks. The average fan doesn’t have the stamina of an MS Dhoni, bending and crouching day after day. The sense of anticipation is missing. A cursory glance at the score and points table is enough to keep track. Not that I did that religiously. A friend asked me to give him a crash course on the 2011 Champions League, with team news and qualification stakes, but I was quite embarrassed to confess that I was just as unaware. Another friend, a cricket-crazy female fan in South Africa, thought I was nuts not to follow it. That’s when I realised that the organisers may have missed a trick. Perhaps they could have continued hosting it in South Africa, as a prelude to the upcoming season, as opposed to India, where the fans are washed up. In the few times I actually tuned in, I was quite bewildered to see a sea of yellow at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. I meant yellow seats, not shirts. The organisers would have been wishing it was the latter. I wondered why the defending champions were being ditched by their own fans. I was told by a journalist covering the game that tickets were not sold for those three stands as they were under repair. You have to wonder if they would have managed to put bums on those seats anyway, if the stands were open. The reason for the lukewarm response lies in the format, among many things. Crowds were particularly poor in matches not involving the home teams. The finalists in this year’s IPL, Chennai and Bangalore, have been below par. Sachin Tendulkar is missing due to injury. One can assume that the previous sponsors, Airtel, aren’t losing sleep over their decision to pull out. The only beneficiaries are the players themselves, which is not a bad thing at all. It gives certain players due recognition and hefty financial rewards. It also helps bail out cash-strapped counties like Leicestershire. Pity though they don’t have the audience. Unless the international calendar gives the fans some breathing space, no amount of aggressive promotion will work. It beats me why Shah Rukh Khan, with due respect to his own superstardom, lends himself to the gaudiest of promotions, with the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Champions League itself. In the latest cringe-worthy video, which recreates a parched battlefield with soil shooting off the players, it makes you want to wipe the mud off your own face. (This piece was written before the RCB vs SAR match)