IPL 2023: What is ‘Sweet 16’ season bringing with itself?

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IPL 2023: We are just hours away from the start of the Indian Premier League 2023 opener between defending champions Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings. It'll not just introduce us to the sixteenth edition of the league. A new era will begin in the history of this cash-rich league.

Sixteen is considered as a very crucial age in the life of a human. You have grown up but still not an adult, people start to have expectations from you and one is expected to deliver on those expectations. Also, age drives a person to explore different dimensions of life.

With abundance of opportunity on offer it also becomes important to act and choose wisely. One wrong step can mess up with the entire foundation which has been laid out in the past 15 years. The 'Sweet 16' phase is very much the make and break year in one's life.

The same goes on with the IPL 16 which kicks off with the GT vs CSK match on Friday, March 31. The 'pocket-money' of the players has increased leaps and bounds. A 24-year-Sam Curran has been acquired by Punjab Kings (PBKS) at a whopping amount of Rs 18.50 crore.

An adolescent kid at sixteen experiences a lot of changes in and around him. The same is transpiring with the IPL where a bunch of new rules will be experimented for the first time in the league. The team sheets will be exchanged by the captains after and not before the toss now.

The batters can review the no-ball and wide-call calls from the umpires. The Impact Player rule will see teams announcing four more who can replace a player in the playing XI at any point in the match. Someone like Ricky Ponting has reckoned that the rule will render all-rounders less important.

At 16, kids see their friends change paths by joining a different school/college or by shifting to a different city. Likewise, the IPL 16 will witness some massive changes in the ten teams. Former Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Kane Williamson will play under the GT outfit, while former Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Mayank Agarwal will don the orange SRH outfit.

How the world sees the IPL has also changed now. The per match value of IPL has made more than a 100 per cent jump from previous Rs 54.5 crore to above Rs 114 crore (approx). Globally, the per match value of IPL is second only to NFL where every match is worth 140 crore approximately.

Like a 16-year-old teenager starts hanging around multiple groups, the IPL broadcasting rights is also not restricted to a single player. Star Sports will be telecasting the match on TV, while Viacom 18's JioCinema will livestream the glittery IPL matches on digital space.

Each 'group' would try hard to prove themselves better and friendlier than the other one. Star Sports have introduced interactive features like 'Real-time Highlights’, 'Key Moments’, and 'Comprehensive Statistics’ for the fans. JioCinema has given the option to choose the best camera angle to the fans.

The world is at the feet of 'Sweet 16' IPL and the guardians (BCCI) will now need to be more careful than ever in nurturing the billion-dollar prodigy.