By India, For Australia

SP on AI slop, always-on content, and assenting to India's vision for cricket

The IPL is over. RCB won again, sadly destroying their identity as hapless Galacticos Chokers – the competition’s most reliably funny meta-narrative. Virat got the trophy, the kid got the prizes. Some big boys did some big things, but there was something unusually flat about edition 2026 – a tournament that Gideon points out was high on sixes but low on viewers.

As Australian cricket wrestles over its apparent Sportsbet v Indian Cement future, the shapes and contortions of the IPL – the jewel in cricket’s financial crown – have felt more acute this year.

That could be a bit Rorschach: you might be wowed by impossible batting feats and wish for the international spread of the spectacle. Or you might experience it as dead-eyed monotony; the idea that a maximum of three T20 games exist, each involving some combination of chasing, match-ups, and the dew coming in, or not. That 74 games might soon be 94. That there might be a second phase later in the year.