Rajiv Shukla blames overdose of T20 cricket for low attendances

Chairman of the IPL Rajiv Shukla and his team have been sweating over low attendances in the current edition of the Indian Premier League. With the World T20 recently concluded and the fans having more than enough of their dose of T20 cricket, Shukla has stated that ‘T20 fatigue’ is his major reason for the lack of full houses in the opening weeks of the IPL.

“It’s true that some of the World T20 venues had an overdose of matches and that is why we did not get full houses in the initial one or two weeks. There was some fatigue but the third and fourth weeks have been better – the IPL fever is rising. The fans are coming in large numbers to watch the game,” Shukla said.

The IPL has also been shifted out of the country on previous occasions. During the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, the IPL moved to South Africa and the subsequent elections saw a portion of the tournament move to Dubai.

“We had to shift the event outside India twice in the past due to the Lok Sabha elections – to South Africa and Abu Dhabi. Technically, IPL should be played in India only. But due to so many PILs in the court, managing the event isn’t easy these days,” he added.

Speaking exclusively with the new owners of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Shukla attested that they were indeed interested in the cricketing growth of the team. Following the Vijay Mallya controversy, the RCB management has been taken over by Diageo.

Yes, they are pretty serious about their cricket. Before the tournament commenced, the owners told us about their vision of running the team. They haven’t approached us about any issue. The players, support staff and the rest of the employees with the franchise don’t need to worry about their salaries. This team is surely up and running like any other IPL franchisee. There is no uncertainty surrounding the RCB. They have also written to us to deal with the new CEO and the IPL team is in touch with him for RCB matters.