IPL Matches are Fixed

I am writing this blog after watching the Rajasthan Royals batting against Mumbai Indians, when it clicked to me that most if not all matches in IPL are fixed. RR got out for a mere 103 that too against MI. The match has not ended yet but I am sure that MI would easily win this match without losing many wickets. 

So what made me think that the matches are fixed ?

If one look at the results of all the matches of IPL we would notice that teams who are the favorites to win and go to semis suddenly start losing matches while teams that are written off as duds start winning matches. 

Lets start from start...

Kolkatta Knight Riders were hot favorites and they started with a bang too, but as soon as they made their mark in the IPL they started losing matches. 

Initially most people have thought that RR would be a dud team and it started predictably too losing their first match, but after that it stunned everyone by winning 5 matches in a row. Now it has made a mark in the IPL and has started looking like a semis material with 5 wins under their belt. We know that any team winning 7 or 8 matches can easily go into the semis. Then we saw the total surrender of RR against MI. If one look at how most batsmen have got out then one would realize that they had thrown their wicket in a premeditated action. Look at Smith's wicket. He did not even care to look back and simply walked away. The keeper was up even when Pollock was bowling. Even other wickets too look more like thrown away rather than taken by good bowling. Look at the wicket of Warn or Trivedi who could not bring the bat in front of ball even when the bowl was considerably slow. It looked more like he was waiting for the ball to hit wicket before he could swing the bat. 

Now look at other teams. 

MI - They were total duds with losing all of their matches. But as soon as they reached a point where any more losses would mean being out of race of semis. All of a sudden they started wining matches. Both CSK and RR batted very badly and gave a very easy win to MI keeping their semi hopes alive.

CSK - They too started with a bang. They were too hot favorites for the semis. When everyone thought that they would cruise all their matches even winning all 14 of their matches, then they started losing matches even against MI and DC who have been losing very badly till then. And now they have lost 3 matches in a row giving people doubts whether they can make it to the semis or not.

DC - They too started with a bust. Losing all of their starting matches. Now when their obituaries were almost written they beat CSK and kept their semis hope alive. They had pretty good lineup initially with the likes of Symonds but they still could not find any wins. When he left and the team was looking more orphaned they pulled out a rabbit out of their hat and defeated CSK. Now they too are semis hopefuls.

Looking at other teams we would notice that other teams too are following the same pattern- wining teams start losing while losing teams start winning.

So why are the matches being fixed ?

Their is a simple logic to this. If all teams played according to their initial predictions then by the mid of the round robin matches we would have 4 clear winner and 4 clear loser ie we would know which teams are going to the semis and which are not. This would make the remaining of the match uninteresting and the teams would lose the valuable ad revenue as people would stop watching subsequent matches. All teams know that their is more money in playing high TRP matches then winning the IPL. So it is in their interest that matching remain interesting to the people and they have high TRP. Winning and losing does not help or hurt teams much apart from a little loss of face which I think any able manager would know. 

So it is quite clear that all teams want the matches to be interesting as only interesting matches bring good money to their managers. And the only way to keep the match interesting is by making it critical in the quest of the semis. If a team has won so many matches that its place in the semis is fixed, then its matches would not be interesting as most people would believe that they would win their next match and secondly even if they lose then too it wont hurt them. Similarly if a team has lost so many matches that they cannot make it to the semis again its matches would become uninteresting. So it is quite clear that, if any team manager wants to make the most money in its matches then it has to make its matches interesting even at the cost of losing the matches. And I am pretty sure that the last league match too would have a major affect in deciding which teams finally go into the semis.

So what will happen next ?

Now it is time for BRC, DC and KKR to start winning matches else they would be out of the semis race. So they will win some more matches to keep their future matches interesting. By time DD and CSK would be under fire for not performing well and would face prospects of being out of the semis race. Then they would start winning again. Following which KXP and RR would reverse their losing streak. And this cycle would continue till the last league match.

After formulating this theory I realized that other dramas that is being played on and off the field like the Harbhajan slapgate or the firing of Charu Shrma by Mallya, both are efforts to attract eyeballs to the matches and nothing else. It seems that IPL has become one of those reality shows in which their is less singing and more roothna and manana drama. 

So it is quite clear that IPL is nothing but money making machine where teams win and lose matches just to keep the TRP high. I do not think their is much interest in actually winning the IPL as teams are happy if they are making good ad money.