Changes from the last time makes IPL-2 more interesting

As the IPL-2 starts today in few hours time, some of the changes that I have noticed this time around with regards to IPL the event, I thought are necessary to be listed down:

1. IPL-2 has shifted to South Africa, what might have been beyond the imagination of many of us a year ago. After all this was considered to be a BCCI dominated all India events, something the Indians were supposed to be proud of because it was completely Indian in nature. However, things change so fast in this global world as nothing is impossible.
2. IPL-2 is getting more coverage in the electronic media all over the world thanks to its success in the very first edition. Cricinfo has launched IPL-2 page just to cater to that, which in my opinion is a really cool and nice place for all IPL lovers to keep the hangover even after the games are over. Surely IPL cartoonists are in demand in this time of global recession.
3. Kolkata Knight Riders is far ahead when it comes to poor public’s attention thanks to Buchanan’s theory on Multiple Captaincy roles and the triggered debates. Gavaskar Vs Shahrukh, appointment of Brendom McCullum as captain and many related things in the media, have kept the public only talk and walk about KKR. Have Mr. Khan and company missed the plot in the process of too much glamorization of Cricket? Let us wait for some time on this.
4. Shane Warne has all the reasons to go into this second edition of IPL with a big smile. After all, do we remember that Rajasthan Royals were the cheapest team in the first edition and very few of us gave even a chance to them? But they did it in an amazing manner, thanks to a marvelous captaincy by Warne which in my opinion was more about recognizing the right mix of unknown talents in a short period of time. He deserved 10/10 in my scorebook. However what is going around this time? Someone has rightly said, success brings fame in no time, so fast that we might be prone to miss the obvious. Well, I hope Warne is smarter than many and he is aware of this. The G factor in terms of Shilpa Shetty, unprecedented media coverage and pressure of being the defending champions hopefully will not change things for Royals in negative ways.
5. Teams are now stricter and more professional. Rajasthan Royals discarded Kaif and six others as too many obviously are not needed. Change of captaincy at Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively also shows that the teams are looking for future and they are ready to take tough decisions. Since there must be an added cost to operate in South Africa as compared to India, we might be seeing many more cricketers returning back during the course of IPL, in the name of “not needed, unfit etc” while the fact would simply be money and cost cutting.

At last, I wish all the best to all the cricketers participating in this second version of IPL, more to the likes of future Yousuf Pathans, Gonys and Jadejas because IPL will churn out some talents again. And most importantly, to all the IPL lovers, enjoy all the games; love all the teams, and all the players as IPL has set its foot be become a global event.