Exactly 12 years ago today, at 8pm in Bangalore, Brendon McCullum walked out to open the batting in the first match of the inaugural 2008 IPL season. He was about to play one of the most significant innings in cricket history & one that would change the sport forever. #IPL
McCullum's 158* off 73 balls smashed the world record for the highest score in a T20 by 17 runs & remained a record for five years. McCullum's 13 sixes was also a world record. In perhaps the single most important match in T20's history, McCullum played its greatest innings. #IPL
The opening match of the IPL was so significant because the tournament heralded the dawn of a new age for the sport: one which recalibrated the economics & structure of the sport from nation v nation contests to club v club & cemented India's hegemony over the global game. #IPL
McCullum's innings lit the touchpaper for six transformative weeks. Lalit Modi—the IPL's architect—told James Astill that 'it was when Brendon hit what he hit that I knew the IPL would work." The league was a runaway success with full stadiums & enormous television ratings. #IPL
In his Editor's Notes in the 2009 Wisden, Scyld Berry wrote: "the supranational IPL is the single biggest change in cricket not merely since the advent of the limited-overs game in the 1960s but.. since the invention of international cricket in the 19th century." #IPL
The IPL concept - city-based T20 cricket - was so good and India's growing control of the game was so great—that the IPL would still have worked were it not for McCullum's innings. However, it was the perfect start for the tournament - propelling cricket into its new age. #IPL
The first chapter of our book 'Cricket 2.0' (📚buy here: amzn.to/2xbfAU0) starts with the story of McCullum's 158*. You can read an extract from it here: 📝 bit.ly/2RPRLIB, featuring exclusive quotes from McCullum talking through the build-up & the innings. #IPL
You can watch highlights here 📽️bit.ly/3bkrauN. It's amazing how it felt so futuristic at the time but looking back at the footage it already looks so dated. Things have changed so much & so fast in the last 12 years & it all started on that heady Bangalore night. #IPL
In the UK the IPL was on a new channel, Setanta Sports. We didn't have the full package but had their news channel where they were showing blurry highlights on a two or three minute delay. That was the peculiar way that, aged 14, I watched the innings that changed cricket. #IPL
Brendon McCullum’s 158*
• How he did it
• Why it mattered
• What it meant
12 years on, an extract from Cricket 2.0 on the innings that changed the game
📝 bit.ly/2RPRLIB
#IPL
• How he did it
• Why it mattered
• What it meant
12 years on, an extract from Cricket 2.0 on the innings that changed the game
📝 bit.ly/2RPRLIB
#IPL
