You look at every ground and you see that from the fencing to the LED advertising board, there is a fair gap. If that gap can be narrowed almost touching the fences, then the boundary rope can also be pushed back by a few metres and which can make the difference between a six and a dismissal.  With bats getting so good and players getting more strong, the bowlers are totally at their mercy. The pitches this year for the IPL have also been very good. They have been hard and don’t help the spinners much. The firm pitches have also encouraged the ball to come on to the bat quite nicely for the batters to play some of the breathtaking shots we have seen so far in the tournament. Perhaps going into the month of May and the heat of peak summer, the pitches will be drier and help the spinners just a little bit more.

Need to protect fielders 

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One aspect to look at protecting the fielders from injury is to have a foam padding in the bottom half of the LED board, so that when they slide over the rope and crash into the board, either with their feet or their head, the foam padding will cushion and soften the impact. Some of the space between the fencing and the LED boards has been made for the convenience of the cheerleaders at the ground. Now while the cheerleaders were part of the initial attraction for the crowds, that novelty has worn off. Besides, who wants to see cheerleaders in full track pants in this summer heat, so might as well stop the practice from the next season and use the space to increase the boundary size.

Also Read: Pant, Samson in mix as wicketkeepers, but no Rahul

More home & away ties in ’25  

The next edition is going to be one where all teams are going to have home and away games, which will obviously mean a few more matches to be played and maybe a few more double headers too. There is going to be a mega auction for the new season and every franchisee’s think-tank will be thinking of ways to strengthen their teams. What sort of retention of players, what sort of salary cap for the teams, will all be decided before the mega auction of course. There is a request to the Board of Control for Cricket in India that when they are having these discussions with the franchisees, as well as their own Governing Council, to maybe include some others who have been associated with the IPL since its beginning in 2008. They could thus invite some of the Indians as well as those international players who played in the initial editions of the IPL and who now may be retired and also some from the media who were there from the first match and are around now, to pick their brains as to how to make the IPL even better.

IPL can be even better

Just to take a few names, people like Ravi Shastri, Matthew Hayden, AB de Villers, Harsha Bhogle, Pommie Mbangwa, who have been players as well as commentators, could be invited. Then, some of those who were umpires in the first few editions, some of those who have been TV producers and technical crew and such like who have seen the IPL grow from 2008 to its current state. They might have a few points to make about what can make the IPL even better and maybe some points which perhaps may no longer be necessary for the tournament.

The IPL can then become an even more Incredible Premier League than it is now.

Professional Management Group