Watching first match of IPL-2 season between, Mumbai Indian & Chennai Super Kings was totally heckneyed & disappointing. It was complete somber show. I still have to finish off watching second inning but I really doubt I could watch it. Reason! Except Cheer Leaders, it was gloom of spectators that flattened my enery.

Even Sachin's 50 couldn't stop me from watching it. Nayar's 3 sixes were failure. It was damn drab. And you know what is missing terribly? Probably the Home crowd! I would really loved to watch IPL-2 in India, but alas! I miss it now. It really makes a huge difference.

It looks synthetic! Watching Game! Watching People! Crowd is unable to connect to game...Compare it with last IPL show. In India, you just don’t need any reason to watch IPL. We are made for Cricket! Cricket is Junoon here! More than just a Game! More than Money! It’s emotional involvement. We are simply mad about it. And this attachment of Indian crowd to Game of Cricket makes a huge difference. I just want people in stadium to shout! A Loud! Make Noise! Create ambience! Create Josh! Create Energy! I felt drained after watching the game.

When Mr. Chidambaram said "IPL is shrewd combination of Cricket & Money" He was absolutely right! But IPL is more than that. I feel IPL has opened many new avenues for Cricket! The Game of Cricket which remained static & colourless for almost past 50 years has changed to an extent one would have never imagined. But has money spelled the doom for game itself? Was it necessary for survival of Game? Was there any room for T20? Or room was created by shrewd business strategy? We will have to answer many questions in coming one month. IPL-2 has opened Pandora’s Box! There is little time to answer big questions.

You can't measure the popularity/success of something in terms of revenues & money. Yes! Money is just one aspect of measuring success. But we tend to forget this simple fact. We have democratized the game! We are trying to make Brand IPL a Global Phenomenon! But without home crowd, it's all in vain. After all success comes at some price na! May be huge!

It would be early to say IPL-2 is a bit of failure in luring crowd. But in rush of finding new business avenues & branding IPL as global phenomenon, do we need to reinvent old wheel? This was going to happen. No one could have speculated it. Not even SRK. Don't mix people coming to see SRK/Shilpa with people coming to watch cricket. Cricket doesn't need SRK/Shilpa to pull crowd in India. It's a bigger brand than anything else. Connecting to game like IPL is different. Here, the battle is among Indian teams whose composition is global. Many faces in each team represent different countries. And still, when it comes to playing on ground, we will never cheer for an individual. We cheer for teams, and for a South African cheering for Mumbai Indian & Chennai Kings doesn't make a sense. It hardly makes difference whosoever wins! Branding has attracted crowd to some extent, but it failed to connect it to game.

At the end, I admit that coming days we Indians will still glue to TV screens watching IPL-2. We will bunk classes! We will bunk office hours! We will still cheer for our favorite teams. We will still celebrate! We will still feel we are part of it. But at the end! We are still far apart. IPL-2 will be a success! Who knows? But surely it is going to miss something terribly. And you just can’t have a substitute for it.

Good Luck to IPL-2!