Indian Premier League (IPL) players are paid nearly 80 per cent more than what they deserved, over two-thirds viewers believe the matches are fixed, and over half of them believe Indian players are behind the racket.
These are the findings of a survey done by Yahoo! India, IPL 2012 Public Perception Survey , conducted last week on the Yahoo! Cricket site.
A total of 18,537 cricketing enthusiasts were polled for this survey.
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Not very damaging
So even as academics and sporting experts are divided over whether a format like the IPL has been good for the sport or not, viewers seem to believe that the effect of cricket has not been all that damaging. Though a resounding 68.9 per cent of the respondents said they believe match-fixing is rampant, oddly, no less than 61.5 per cent felt that despite this, the format has had a positive effect on cricket. Oddly again, the same survey finds that 56.5 per cent feel that IPL is responsible for players from the Indian cricket time getting exposed to injuries.
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However, despite the mixed feelings, one thing the respondents appeared to be clear on is that cricketers must not skip tests and ODIs to play IPL matches (92 per cent respondents said this).
The survey also asked respondents, presumably cricket fans, what messages they had for team owners. Over 60 per cent said team owners should keep off the field (perhaps referring to the infamous Shah Rukh Khan incident).
No to motormouth
Another popularity poll conducted — on commentators — revealed that Ravi Shastri was the clear favourite among the cricketing enthusiasts who participated in the survey.
He was followed by Harsha Bhogle and Danny Morrison. Among the least popular however was ‘funny man' Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former cricketer Ajay Jadeja and Rameez Raja.