Think about it. If you're a casual cricket fan hearing things about the IPL, what would excite you more: Swapnil Asnodkar hitting a six or Harbhajan slapping Sree Santh? Manpreet Gony taking a wicket or Shane Warne ridiculing Sourav Ganguly?"The IPL has been a fantastic advertisement for cricket," says former India player Anshuman Gaekwad, "But that adds to the intensity for the players, and some issues which should have been sorted in dressing rooms have spilled out into the open. The public, though, is enjoying."
So much for the IPL's exaggerated emphasis on sportsmanship. In what is probably a fallout of the turmoil in the Australia-India series Down Under, authorities have taken prompt action: Which other tournament has seen two umpires suspended in a matter of days, forget about players? Even the last in the chain, a curator, came close to being sacked in Kolkata.
In their own insolent ways, these four habitual offenders, Harbhajan, Sree Santh, Ganguly and Warne might just have done the IPL a perverse favour by doing their bit to sustain public interest.
The IPL frenzy has only been half about the on-field action, but the event has, for two weeks now, made 'cricket' the undisputed buzzword. So never mind the fact that its 'spirit', an abstract concept which exists only in the contravention, might take a beating once in a while.
Call it mind games, brinkmanship or rush of blood. But a motley mix of players of different nationalities, playing for teams with newly-created local identities, would find it hard-pressed to sustain long-term spectator interest without a dash of the ferocity which lends the international game its charm.
Remember the super flop called the Super Series? The IPL is a far cry from that shambles of a concept, precisely because losing here is not an easy option.
It could be argued the IPL doesn't need such controversies, but the new audience doesn't mind. Such unintentional TRP boosts, though, haven't gone down well with everyone. Says former India skipper Bishan Singh Bedi, "There's a long way to go in the event and such controversies are only the tip of the iceberg. It could be attracting new fans, but at what cost? In the IPL, it's every man for himself and devil take the hindsight."
