Former South African international and Royal Challengers player AB de Villiers referred to the Indian Premier League as not only the biggest cricket league but also the biggest sports league in the world.
The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League starts this Friday (March 22) with a blockbuster clash between defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai.
Speaking at CNN-News18’s Rising Bharat Summit, de Villiers said, “It [the IPL] certainly is [the centrepiece of cricket]. It’s grown from strength to strength over the years. It’s not only the biggest cricket league in the world; I think it’s one of the biggest sports leagues in the world, which is quite something to have been achieved over such a short period. We’ve seen it really explode over the last few years.
“The performances the players put in really make them household names. And some of the foreigners coming over here get to understand a bit more about the Indian culture and also become household names over here. So it’s truly remarkable. It’s a great opportunity for all players, and not only players but administrators and everyone, to get involved. And I think the cricket fans have really enjoyed it over the years,” said the South African.
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De Villiers, who retired from international cricket in 2018 and the IPL in 2021, will be part of JioCinema’s commentary team for IPL 2024 and said he is looking forward to ‘a lot of fun’ during his commentary stint.
“Well, over there at Jio Cinema, we’ve got a fantastic team. So I really feel at home. It’s not an individual sport, which helps a lot. It’s nice to have teammates around you, and we have a lot of fun. That’s also part of our strength over there. We are still cricket players. I still feel like I just played the other day. So that’s the way we commentate as well. We really give the fans and the audience a bit of an insight into what it feels like to go through those moments, the pressure moments, what it feels like in the changing room, what it feels like to lose and also to win. And I think that’s what makes it really,” he said.
On the panel was also former Australian international Brett Lee, who said the IPL has brought a lot of different cultures a lot closer together.
“I think what the Indian Premier League has done is that it’s actually brought a lot of different cultures a lot closer together. In my first three years, I think it was playing for Kings XI [KXIP], the Punjab Kings back then, and seeing how different guys prepared. You got guys from South Africa, obviously, players from India and all over the world, and just the different preparations that they go through. And I think it’s brought the cricket nations a lot closer together.
“It doesn’t mean that when you get the chance to play against them on a national scale, that camaraderie is still there, that passion, that aggression is still there, but it just transcends and actually finds a way to take that angst out of the game. And that’s what the Indian Premier League has done. It just gets better and better and better. I always joke that the hardest part about playing in the Indian Premier League wasn’t necessarily the training and the bowling. It was the afterparty, and trying to recover from that. So that was a lot of fun. It changed,” remembered Lee.
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