Night lights

The inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament dominated the news as I travelled through India last week. The IPL is a Twenty20 cricket tournament consisting of eight city teams competing in 56 games over 44 days. The IPL works on a franchise-system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers. Every franchises were put up for auction in January. An astonishing US$723.59 million was bid by the time the final hammer fell.

The competition also has a surprisingly international flavour as each team can buy up to eight overseas players. As a result the competition is littered with familiar Australian names including Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting. Even Shane Warne has scored a coaching stint with the Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur's home team).

Everywhere I went live television broadcasts could be seen flickering on screens everywhere. On Tuesday, while in Mumbai, I watched the Chennai Super Kings defeat the Mumbai Indians on a giant TV screen at a local bar. The city's team lost on the final ball by six runs. The daily papers were also filled with IPL news including a controversy over the skimpy attire of the cheerleaders specially imported from Dallas.

In Bangalore we witnessed the local cricket stadium rehearsing a spectacular light show for the game played yesterday. As we ate dinner a swirl of spotlights lit the night sky, dancing in endlessly changing patterns and colours. Sadly it seems that the spectacle was of little value. The Bangalore Royal Challengers lost to Shane Warne's team by a healthy margin.