Far from marking the end of nationalism, the IPL is the ultimate triumph of that principle: a global tournament in which the same nation always wins.

— Gideon Haigh

[F]or all its reputation for conservatism, cricket in its history has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for innovation. What game has survived subjection to such extraordinary manipulations, having been prolonged to 10 days (in Durban 70 years ago), truncated to as few as 60 balls (in Hong Kong every year), and remained recognizable in each instance?

— Gideon Haigh

George Orwell famously described international sport as 'war minus the shooting'. But for all Orwell's greatness as a thinker, this was one of his least felicitous lines, analogous to 'murder minus the death' or 'life minus the breathing'.

— Gideon Haigh

One keeps looking out for innovation in IPL, but of late it hasn't been all that obvious. Lionel Richie as an opening act? Johnny Mathis must have been busy. Matthew Hayden's Mongoose? Looks a bit like Bob Willis' bat with the "flow-through holes"; Saint Peter batting mitts are surely overdue a revival. The only genuinely intriguing step this year, bringing the IPL to YouTube, was forced on Mode by the collapse of Santa; otherwise what Mode presents as 'innovation' is merely expansion by another name, in the number of franchises and the number of games.

— Gideon Haigh

Since inception, the IPL has worn its brand value like a corroboration of inner virtue. On the eve of this tournament, under the headline 'Brand IPL touches the sky', the league's website reverberated with the announcement that Brand Finance, a branding consultancy, had valued the brand value of the IPL brand at $4.13 billion worth of brand—which is a lot of brand, brand-wise.

— Gideon Haigh

Since Mode's Mumbai sign-off, much commentary has been focused on the brand-dilution potential inherent in its scandals. MS Dhoti doesn't think we should worry: 'IPL as a brand can survive on its own.' Ships Shetty, 'brand ambassador' of the Rajasthan Royals, tweets that we should: 'Custodians of Cricket must not hamper d Brand value of this viable sport.' Hampering d Brand value, insists new IPL boss Chirpy Amin, is the furthest thing from his mind: 'IPL's brand image is strong and nobody can touch that.' Harsh Whole, however, frets for the nation: 'Within the cricket world, Brand India will take a hit.' Not much more than a week after Mode's first tell-all tweets, the media was anxiously consulting Brand Finance's managing director, NNI Krishnan. Had there been any brand dilution yet? It was, said the soothsayer gravely, 'too early to say'. He could, however, confirm the following: 'The wealth that can be created by the brand is going to be substantially significant for many stakeholders. A conducive ecosystem has to be created to move the brand to the next level… We have to build the requisite bandwidth to monetize these opportunities.' Er, yeah… what he said. Anyway, placing a value on the IPL brand has clearly been quite beneficial to Brand Finance's brand.

— Gideon Haigh

The assumption now is that the interests of the brand and of the game overlap to the degree that cricket need hardly be mentioned.

— Gideon Haigh

The IPL, involving the socialist principle of a salary cap and the protectionist mechanism of quotas, is not perhaps the best example of a market left flourishing to its own devices and dynamics.

— Gideon Haigh