Indian Premier League (IPL) vs Pakistan Super League. Senior Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa answered back in style to a Pakistani journalist who claimed that the PSL has been growing much faster despite the battle with the IPL, while the IPL had no competition when it was launched.
The IPL has been a hit since its inception in 2008 when no franchise or T20 cricket league was of such stature, such opulence and has only grown bigger and richer in the past 14 seasons.
PSL, on the other hand, was launched in 2016 and has had 7 seasons so far and has been a success, especially with overseas stars agreeing to play the tournament in Pakistan earlier this year. However, there is no match for PSL with the IPL currently.
Arfa Feroz Zake, an Islamabad based journalist, took to Twitter on Friday to share his opinion regarding the PSL’s growth. He said that IPL was lucky that it didn’t have any big competition from any other cricket league at that point, hinting that PSL has flourished more rapidly in presence of the IPL than the latter would have if it had any challenger in 2008.
“No comparison between PSL and IPL! PSL started in 2016 while IPL inaugurated in 2008. However one has to admit PSL gained worldwide popularity more quicker in an era when other boards had introduced their leagues too whereas there was no competitor in the market when IPL was born,” journalist Arfa Feroz Zake tweeted.
Irked by this tweet from the Pakistani journalist, CSK’s Robin Uthappa shot back with a reply that perhaps summarised IPL’s impact on world cricket: “IPL created the market!!”
IPL created the market!!
— Robin Aiyuda Uthappa (@robbieuthappa) March 19, 2022
Meanwhile, Robin Uthappa is currently preparing for the upcoming IPL season. The IPL veteran was bought back by CSK for 2 crore in the mega-auction last month. Uthappa played two crucial knocks for CSK in the IPL playoffs last season – 63 off 44 balls vs DC in Qualifier 1 and 31 off 15 balls vs KKR in the final – and showed that the 36-year-old has still got it in him to win big games.
