Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has praised the Indian Premier League’s impact on international cricket, highlighting how the T20 league’s high standards and talent scouting have aided in the discovery of prodigies like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the adolescent wonder for the Rajasthan Royals.
Smith, who was a member of the Rajasthan Royals’ 2008 IPL winning team, commended the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi for making an instant impression and said that the league has played a significant role in creating competitive T20 ecosystems around the world, including South Africa’s SA20 competition.
Indian cricket hasn’t produced a teenager who has the entire cricket world in awe since the great Sachin Tendulkar. Even against the top bowlers, he can hit sixes practically at will, making him the ideal model for the modern game.
When Sooryavanshi met the seasoned bowling attack of the Mumbai Indians in Guwahati on Tuesday, he was put to the test. The teenager took on Jasprit Bumrah, the finest bowler in the world, after hitting 68 sixes in 378 balls in T20 cricket before the match.
When Sooryavanshi faced Bumrah for the first time in his career, he showed no signs of nervousness by hitting the MI pacer’s opening ball over long-on for a six. Two balls later, he pulled the fast bowler for another six.
“The IPL has started exactly how I expected it to, with flatter pitches and high-scoring games. As always, it’s interesting to see how the old school superstars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli perform, but I think this youngster for the Rajasthan Royals, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, is the one to watch in the opening few weeks,” Smith said on his blog.
“He has already shown his ability to power it right from ball one. As a young man, he could become a proper superstar over the course of the tournament, and I’m really excited to see how he goes.”
Smith thinks the world’s most popular Twenty20 tournament has completely changed the face of cricket. He feels that the IPL’s success has spilled over into SA20, reviving cricket in South Africa and bringing latent talent to the fore.
“Our six franchises are a huge, integral part of the growth of SA20. We were very fortunate to attract six IPL teams of high quality, and they’re the most experienced franchise owners in the world,” Smith said.
“They are very competitive, they want to win, and they bring in a level of cricket and business excellence across the board, from coaching to medical care. The IPL franchises have brilliant scouts – the talent they find doesn’t always come through the system.
“When you’re trying to rebuild and grow a cricket ecosystem, to have partners like that is amazing. It’s kind of impossible to compete with the IPL, but we’ve been fortunate that they’ve been very open with us, and helped us build the big blocks in the early phases.”
“We all love Test cricket, but T20 is the growth format. It’s bringing private ownership into the game, and we’re seeing the huge valuations now. People around the globe are taking cricket seriously; it’s got a huge number of eyeballs, and it’s growing in all the key markets.”
“The interesting thing to see now, where it can go, is over the next four to five years, with private ownership in the game and the 2028 Olympics coming up.”
