IPL packs its bags, goes traveling

So the highly successful corporate version of 'gully cricket' aka IPL is happening outside India. For one, I am glad that the powers that be in IPL have given high priority for security concerns. At least the players will play without fearing for their lives. There is an assumption here of course, that security abroad is better than in India. But at least the IPL supremos have understood that security agencies will be hard pressed to provide security to the matches. After all, they have to provide security for the other IPL (Indian Political League, which is no less interesting and amusing!)
There is another phenomenon here. For years, cricket was a sport like any other - say hockey or basketball or kabaddi, for that matter. Then with the advent of ODI and then T20, it became a spectator event. Now IPL with its much publicized franchisees, celebrity owners, player auctions and of course the gyrating cheerleaders, it has now become a TV show. What matters more here is TRP ratings, advertising revenues and the money that everybody makes in the bargain. The decision to move IPL out of India only reinforces this point.