Finally IPL is over

Year 2008, BCCI's IPL was born. Year 2009, BCCI's Indian Premier League was held in South Africa. Was this the only difference? I doubt. All through the 2009 session, I wondered what was it that I could just not keep the same interest going like last year? Was it just me or something more to it? A news report in ET at least told me that it wasn't just me. The TVR rating (a mix of viewership and time spent on watching a program) had actually gone down. Though more people watched it, the time spent on it has gone down. So what does it tell us? Too much of cricket? Absence of Indian crowd? Strategy break? This could be as big a dark horse in this story as much was the Rahul factor in Indian Parliamentary league! As usual, more questions than answers. For me the criteria seem to be three -

One : Viewer fatigue. Its no more a novel idea. Too much of anything is bad even if its just 20-20
Two : Absence of "Indian" stars living upto their stardom. While some did perform, but none of them seemed to have captured the imagination.
Three : Strategy break. Definitely I feel. It gave the chance to viewer to move away from the screen and have better things to do.

Thus while the skirts got shorter for the cheer leaders it didn't highten the interest for sure. And guess what, I feel relieved that the league is over. I am sure lot many share the same feeling. Not to forget that I fear how it will affect our world cup chances and what so much of cricket will do to my interest in it.

P.S : Can someone please get rid of this bollywood shadow on the teams, any team with remotest of filmy connection lost (Rajasthan royal, Sharukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Katrina Kaif)