Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I see baseball as a predominantly North American and Japanese sport.
I am no expert on this particular field, but as far as I can tell, it has not garnered the worldwide support that other US exports have done.
Not that traditionally cricket has fared a great deal better. Seen largely as an "Empire Sport" played by nations once a part of Britain's colonies, its slow pace and tiny nuances have all too often dissuaded the casual sports fan from sitting down and watching a five day test.
Enter Twenty20 cricket.
The format, with each team facing a single 20 over innings (an over is six balls), has revolutionised the game and turned a once tactical and intricate field game into a smash and crash frenzy.
Following the success of the shorter game, a group of incredibly rich Indian cricket fans decided to form a league comprising of the world's greatest players all playing a small season of Twenty20.
- B/R Ticket Guide
The IPL, or Indian Premier League, has attracted almost all of the globe's leading stars through the healthy salaries and exciting format and led to a buzz around the sport not seen since the inception of the one day format.
The big-hitting, frenetic pace of the games have already taken a firm grip on fans and led to some of the most incredible feats of cricket in recent memory, with one batsman, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, scoring a sensational 158 runs from 73 balls in the league's opening fixture.
With the incredible enthusiasm for the game being generated and the sure-fire TV audiences that are watching around the world, one question stuck in my mind: why has baseball not done a similar thing?
Like I said, I am not an expert on the sport, but I imagine that reducing the number of innings in a match from nine to five, for example, would increase the pace and urgency of the game, creating more excitement and fun for the uninitiated world sports fan.
Why not try to create a small, knock-out tournament comprising of the world's best players using a shorter format in the off-season?
Cricket was stagnating before Twenty20 and the new lease of life given to it promises to create a new generation of players from around the world and increase its standing to a leading global sport.
I'm sure that baseball fans would love to see the same happen to their beloved game.
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6 months ago
Never thought IPL was big outside INDIA!!!
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