What is the national game of India? Hockey? Are you sure? You have read this on the study book or general knowledge book. By book, you are absolutely correct. But those people could not study books like you, depending on general source of information or common sense, he or she very easily can come up with an answer cricket. Still if you go to various Indian villages, you will found many answering cricket. The reason is very simple. They are not wrong at all. The hype they see and feel in India for cricket, the answer is expected.

The popularity of Indian cricket was always there. But not only that, the popularity is still increasing. There was a time when cricket used to be 3 days of single inning test match and 5 days of double innings test match. 3 days test are no more in business. 5 days are still being played by the cricket playing countries though the future of test cricket is about to sink deep. There was a time when one day match used to be a 60 overs inning match. Later it came down to 50 overs inning match. Each team will get 50 overs to bat. This is still in being played and popular form of cricket though it has lost a big time popularity after the 20 over inning match had been introduced. So there is more or less a popularity percentage for particular forms of cricket but the popularity of cricket is high in India.

Competing with cricket, hockey found a tough asks to get the popularity. Players always try to put extra effort to get the popularity strike in India like cricket and cricketers. But they fail. Couple of years back there was a time when hockey also had popularity in India. That time Indian cricket had different phase. Cricket was not so regular like this time it happens. People used to sit to watch the hockey match but nowadays the cricket happens so often that overtook the popularity.

The recent popular stuff on television for India, Indians and the overseas also is Indian Premier League. A huge amount of money count, big players, and big arrangements make it look so glamorous. It was started 6 years back. Hockey was entirely covered under when it was started. Yes a question can come to your mind that how IPL covered up or pushed back the game hockey, it does not run entire of the year. Correct it is.

But IPL is long tournament of 45 to 50 days. The other cricket playing country boards have found the popularity of IPL is so high all over the world; it is tough to deny and arrange non Indian cricket tour. It makes no TRP, no endorsement, and no profit. Watching the popularity of IPL, this year the premier league of hockey is being introduced with the same pattern IPL is played and arranged. But after the first season of the Indian Hockey league, hockey is unable to retrieve its popularity back though it is still the national game of India.

The Rock is a name synonymous with professional wrestling, especially World Wrestling Entertainment, the biggest wrestling company in the World. Both his father and his grandfather were professional wrestlers and he followed in their footsteps. His career in the WWE began in 1996. During his first run from 1996 to 2004, he became one of the most popular wrestlers of all time. He was one of the main attractions of the WWE during their most successful period in the late 1990’s. His good looks, chiseled body, natural charisma landed him a role in the 2002 Hollywood blockbuster, The Scorpion King.Soon Hollywood beckoned and after his WWE contract ran out, he went on to became a successful movie star. He made some appearances in WWE from time to time but they were non-wrestling roles.

Seven years later he made his comeback to WWE in 2011. Much to the delight of the fans, he began wrestling again. He began competing against the current top stars like John Cena and CM Punk. At the ‘Royal Rumble” 2012 event, he won the WWE championship after almost 10 years by defeating Punk. He also took part in the next big event the ‘Elimination chamber” . He was then scheduled to defend his championship against John Cena in the year’s biggest event, Wrestlemania 29. However his appearances on WWE programming are irregular due to his movie commitments. Although WWE fans were happy to see him back, his sporadic appearances angered many who felt that a part-timer like him should not be holding the companies top championship.

All of the WWE’s monthly big events are Pay-per-View events. WWE has recently released the buy rates for both Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber events. Royal Rumble 2012 had 498,000 buys which is significantly more than last year when the figure was 443,000. Elimination Chamber had 210,000 buys whereas last year it was 178,000. It is clear that WWE has tasted financial success by having the Rock participate in its events. It is quite understandable that the company would want to carry this momentum until Wrestlemania which is their grandest event. The WWE needs Wrestlemania to be a huge financial success because it puts all its resources in it.

Some fans have been vocal about The Rock’s performance in the ring. According to them, he is not as good as he is used to be. A section of the fan feels he is simply occupying the top spot which should belong to a full time wrestler who can perform better. But what these fans do not understand is that WWE is a business and it is driven by financial gains. There may be wrestlers who are much better than Rock, but they are not bigger stars who will attract the fans, something which the Rock will do. By putting the Rock and John Cena against each other, the WWE is cashing in two huge stars to bring in the profits. The Rock has mainstream popularity because of his movie career and WWE wants to use it to grow their business. If the fans are coming to watch it then WWE has made the right decision.

In the world of entertainment, Indian Premier League has claimed a special notice and position since last 6 years. Everyone does not have the same opinion but huge crowd has welcomed it as the biggest entertainment season in their life. The popularity is not limited to the cricket playing countries but also non playing countries too.

IPL is all about big players, big money, and convergence of other country players, mixture of techniques, sixes, fours and entertainment, though everyone does not think in this way. They said IPL is all about money and buying and selling of players like commodity and the ultimate bottom line is it is no cricket.

But most of the people do not have much time to think about it. All they care is big players hitting big sixes and the favorite players raising their bats. Initially bowlers did not have any place in this cricket format. All the big money used to go to batsmen. But nowadays bowler have found their way to success and adapted to it very well. Most of the games played in the Indian Premier League nowadays are not of big scores. Batsmen have found scoring runs tough. But the craze of IPL have not gone down a level yet but increased can be said.

The inclusion of entertainment world, Bollywood, had given an extra entertainment value to Indian Premier League from its dawn. Few stars from the Bollywood like Shah Rukh Khan, PritI Zinta, Shilpa Shetty own teams in IPL where as other stars are very regular on the cricket ground during the IPL days to support their favorite teams. Often they use Indian Premier League as a platform to promote their films. Indian entertainment industry has started taking IPL very seriously and respects it. No big project or production company dare to release the film during this 1 and half moth of period I fear of to not get a full house show during match times which is 3.30 pm to almost 11.45 pm in IST for two matches.

Indian Premier League has given a booming platform for the advertising and endorsement business too. The gathering of huge crowd is always a kicker platform for promotion. Few people are using this carefully and effectively to get the best out of it.

Beside every important and entertaining element in Indian Premier League, another thing has always found its place in the front page is match fixing. Spot fixing and money trouble never left the cricket alone in Indian Premier League. Many times this news hits the newspaper front page including big names, sometimes the organizers as well. Indian Premier League has crossed 6 years and a hard try is still going on to make Indian Premier League clean from fixing.

Though some unofficial incidents hit the deck of Indian Premier League, most of the people are not at all bothered of these. The entertainment is the ultimate word for them. Indian Premier League is serving billions of people all over the world that writes the success story of Indian Premier League.