What explains 30,000-plus people at most IPL games when 10,000 people means very good attendance for a day of Test cricket?

Boria Majumdar, senior research fellow, University of Central Lancashire, says: "A story narrated by one of our just retired stalwarts provides part of the answer. All through his career, the player in question used to give a ticket to a childhood friend each time he played in his home city. For the first time in 15 years, the friend asked for three tickets during IPL 2011. When asked what prompted the increase, the friend's ans-wer was that his wife and young son, then 10, were determined to see the IPL. This led the player to suggest that a tournament which has actually added two units to the cricket-watching population has to be considered a big positive for cricket. This is especially so at a time when stadium attendance is on the decline in India." Read More

Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.