Rohit Sharma takes to Twitter to praise the IPL

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been creating ripples ever since its inception almost a decade ago. Be it the power-hitting or the sheer glamour of the annual extravaganza, IPL has managed to enthral millions of cricket lovers every single time. With the media rights of the tournament for the period 2018-22 having been sold to Star India for a mammoth sum, Indian opener, Rohit Sharma took to Twitter to laud the cricketing gala and compare it to some of the biggest world sports tournaments.

Initially, the IPL media rights had been bought for the first ten years by Sony Pictures for INR 8200 crores. This sum has increased by several folds as the current owner of the broadcasting rights, Star India has inked the deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a whopping sum of INR 16,347.50 crore, that too for only half the original time period. This magnitude of growth is apt in summarising the meteoric rise of the IPL as a class-apart limited-over tournament in cricket.

Rohit Sharma compares IPL to NFL and Premier League

Prolific Indian opener, Rohit Sharma took to social media platform, Twitter on Sunday to express his elation at the stature the IPL has reached. He compared the tournament to two of the biggest sporting events in the world, the National Football League (NFL) and the Premier League.

He also rightly pointed out what made IPL lay a claim on the same footing as the other two leagues by saying that the Indian cricketing gala is only 10 years of age. While the NFL was established in 1920, the Premier League kicked off in 1992, thus making IPL a toddler tournament in comparison.

Further, the Indian domestic T20 league has been successful in bringing in its wake more limited-overs leagues all over the world, such as the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in the Caribbeans and the Global T20 League in South Africa.

Here’s what Rohit tweeted:

Little late but I have to mention what a brand @ipl has become. In the league of @NFL & @premierleague. Remember, IPL is only 10 years old?

— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) September 10, 2017