IPL 2012: What does India really think?

NEW DELHI, INDIA: On the heels of the action, drama and controversies of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2012, Yahoo! India conducted an online survey on Yahoo! Cricket.

The ‘IPL 2012 Public Perception Survey’ ran from June 4-9, 2012 on the leading cricket site, and saw a huge uptake with 18, 537 respondents in the 6-day span.

Interesting, surprising, shocking - the insights reflect the ups and downs of this glamorous sporting event which takes India by storm each year. While 61.5 per cent respondents believe that the IPL format has had a positive effect on Indian cricket, at the same time 68.9 per cent believe that IPL players are involved in match-fixing.

Asking Rates

• Pay seems to be pitched over-the-top say 79.1 per cent of the respondents who feel that the IPL cricketers are paid more than what they actually deserve.

• On a different over, 66.6 per cent respondents say that cricketers receive ‘under the table’ payments to play the game while 14.4 per cent disagree and 19 per cent were unaware of the subject.

• Spot fixing and match fixing is in the limelight, with over 68.9 per cent respondents believing that IPL players are involved, and 57.3 per cent believe that Indian players are involved in fixing matches.

Keep off the Grass

• Don’t go gung-ho on the field during or after the match, team owners - say 60.1 per cent of the respondents, while 36 per cent feel that they should be allowed to enter.

• Not surprisingly, 48.2 per cent of the people feel that controversy-mired Lalit Modi should not manage IPL again, while 37.5 per cent are in favor of his leading the show.

Reality Check

• 56.6 per cent of the respondents feel that IPL is responsible for players getting exposed to injuries.

• 56.5 per cent people are in favor of two strategic time-outs in every IPL innings.

• Cricketers should not be allowed to skip the tests and ODI’s to play the IPL matches, says a whopping. 92 per cent majority

Commentary strike-rate

• 44.9 per cent think that cricket commentators have overall done a good job in IPL 2012.

• Ravi Shastri takes the crown as the best commentator with 30.5 per cent majority, followed by Harsha Bhogle (19 per cent) and Danny Morrison (18.4 per cent).

• Navjot Singh Sidhu (34.4 per cent), Ajay Jadeja (11.7 per cent), and Rameez Raja (9.8 per cent) are voted as the least popular commentators this season.