How a galaxy of international superstars left a lasting imprint on the IPL

When Lalit Modi was setting up the Indian Premier League (IPL) jamboree in 2008, Shane Warne was a washed-up cricketer done with bamboozling hapless batters. A startup T20 venture in India didn’t excite him. A phone call, however, reignited Warne’s waning competitive spirit. 

For the inaugural season, Rajasthan Royals (RR) had hired Ravi Krishnan, a former executive of sports and culture company IMG, as vice-president. Krishnan, who had played grade cricket with Warne at St Kilda, a seaside suburb in Melbourne, recommended the champion Australian spinner as the franchise’s captain. He called up Warne and said: “This is your chance to prove that you were the best captain Australia never had. Come, run the franchise and win the one title you haven’t.” 

Krishnan’s words fired up Warne. At 38, cricket’s sharpest brain returned to the field to script a fairytale title triumph for RR.

The IPL bandwagon glides into the 18th season on Saturday, when defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders face Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

  In 18 years, the IPL has grown in size and heft, with the 10-franchise league being a major summer spectacle that chugs along uninterrupted by events like the Lok Sabha elections or the pandemic.

  This marquee league, with a brand value of $12 billion, remains a crown jewel among major sporting leagues across the globe. The bulk of the credit goes to a galaxy of international superstars like Warne, Adam Gilchrist, AB de Villiers, and Chris Gayle for adding gravitas with their presence. Through their steady transfer of expertise, they have played a key role in turning the Indian cricket team into an ultra-competitive, trophy-guzzling unit. 

  “If you want to be a global league, then getting A-listers is a prerequisite,” advertising professional Santosh Desai, CEO, Futurebrands India, told Business Standard. “Warne and de Villiers have always been on the opposite end of the spectrum. Through the IPL, that fantasy got realised because they are playing in the team that an Indian fan is rooting for.” 

  Melting pot 

  A captain of imagination and flair, Warne ran RR with a degree offairness, which rubbed off on the then young, impressionable 19-year-old Ravindra Jadeja. 

From Warne, Jadeja earned the moniker, ‘The Rockstar’.

  The Aussie’s inputs would go a long way in shaping the career of the Saurashtra all-rounder. “Every time we see each other now, he still calls me ‘sir’. I tell him I should be on 10 per cent of everything he earns,” Warne wrote in his autobiography No Spin.

  The guru-shishya relationship between Warne and Jadeja is not the only heart-warming tale from IPL’s sepia-tinted archives.

Lasith Malinga, the former Sri Lankan tearaway fast bowler, known for his unusual action and propensity to bowl yorkers at will, took an inexperienced Jasprit Bumrah under his wings in 2013.

  Under the canvas of the Mumbai Indians, Malinga would be instrumental in honing Bumrah’s skills.

  Kieron Pollard would pass on some of the tricks of his trade to help Hardik Pandya morph into white-ball cricket’s most fearsome hitter.

  Jadeja, Bumrah, and Pandya are the lynchpins in Indian cricket, pivotal to their team’s phoenix-like rise as a cricketing behemoth, as evidenced by their twin International Cricket Council (ICC) titles — T20 World Cup in 2024 and Champions Trophy last month —  in a year.

  IPL’s quota of four overseas (non-Indian) players per team is the most liberal, considering other leagues, such as Australia’s Big Bash and England’s The Hundred, allow only three per team.

  Even the bulk of the coaching staff in IPL teams are foreigners.

  In a sense, the IPL is a melting pot of nationalities and cultures.

  “In the 1980s and 1990s, English County cricket was the source of livelihood for most cricketers. For four months, it gave them an opportunity to enhance their skills,” said veteran sports journalist Ayaz Memon.

  It has now given way to the IPL.

  “There is a constant transfer of expertise that takes place between the younger Indian players and these global superstars,” Memon noted.

  There is also a constant learning and unlearning that happens on the IPL circuit.

  It helps rookie Abhishek Sharma add another dimension to his batting by opening for the Sunrisers Hyderabad with the swashbuckling Australian Travis Head.

  The idea exchange is not always one-sided.

  “After two disastrous international seasons, Virat Kohli has managed to turn a corner during the previous IPL edition,” Memon said, elaborating, “A young foreign player can learn from (Kohli) on the mental aspect of the game… how to absorb pressure and bounce back from failures.”

  With time, the IPL has also served as an ice-breaker. Like the bond that was forged between Harbhajan Singh and the late Andrew Symonds during the 2011 season.

  Few could have predicted their rapprochement, especially after the acrimonious ‘Monkeygate’ scandal during India’s 2007-08 tour of Australia.

  “It’s all fine here,” Symonds had said, confirming the much-talked-about truce with Singh.

  Warner: The dancing champion

  The 17 seasons of the IPL have also documented tales of reinventions.

  David Warner, an imperious batter, also the architect of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, finally found something that proved to be elusive throughout his career: Genuine love from fans.

  During the peak of the pandemic, Warner captivated Indian fans by sharing TikTok videos with his wife and three daughters, and dancing to the tunes of Telugu chartbuster, “Butta Bomma”.

  From a batting champion to a dancing champion, life had come full circle for Warner.

  Silencing 130,000 people

  As more foreigners joined the IPL, it increased their familiarity with the country, stripping India of its intrigue, mystique and home advantage.

  Playing in front of boisterous, capacity crowds in gargantuan stadia across India gave them exposure that was not possible before the advent of this cash-rich league.

  “Home advantage, especially in the subcontinent, has reduced to a large extent over the last 10 to 12 years because people come and play here so much, especially in the IPL,” former India coach Rahul Dravid said before the 2023 World Cup.

  An underrated New Zealand team registered a historic 3-0 whitewash in India last year, something even the all-conquering Steve Waugh’s Australia failed to achieve in their pomp in the early 2000s.

  Thanks to the IPL, India is no longer the ‘final frontier’ for most touring teams these days.

  “Most of these foreign players know the conditions better than the Indians. Constant travel during the IPL has given them exposure and unfiltered knowledge,” former Delhi cricketer Sanjiv Sharma said.

  The 2023 World Cup final between India and Australia in Ahmedabad is a case in point.

  That day, Australian captain Pat Cummins read the pitch better than his Indian counterpart, Rohit Sharma, and opted to bowl first on the slow wicket. By hitting the pitch and bowling a mix of slower deliveries, the Aussies applied the choke on the fancied hosts.

  “We’re in a huddle after the wicket of Virat Kohli, and Steve Smith said, ‘Boys, listen to the crowd. The stadium had 100,000-plus Indians, and it was as quiet as a library,” Cummins told The Age.

  It was a tale of redemption for Cummins, who a day earlier had said that he relished the prospect of silencing the 130,000 spectators (read Indian fans) in the final. Ahmedabad’s “feel of a library” on November 19, 2023, is etched in cricketing folklore.

As for IPL, it has been a win-win story — with both Indian and foreign cricketers trading off each other.