IPL 2018 Retention Ceremony Drew Viewership of 8.1 Million - Star India

Updated - 16 Jan 2018, 01:43 PM

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The eleventh edition of IPL 2018 has witnessed a major overhauling with two teams Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions being termed defunct. Photo Credit: IPL.

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The IPL retention ceremony, which was a televised affair for the first time, drew a viewership of 8.1 million, as per a statement released by Star India. However, the number could have been much higher.

The first and the foremost reason for a bit low viewership is that the channel only advertised for the event just a couple of days before the event was to be held. In fact, a scribe broke the news even before Star advertised for it, which is one of the reasons behind a low viewership. The second reason behind low viewership is – teams releasing the list of players before the event was televised.

In fact, Chennai Super Kings had revealed the list of retained players a few hours ago, which prevented fans from watching the event. Had the event would have had a live telecast, the number could have been different.

Though it was the first time when the event was live, the broadcasters will surely have a plan next time when this event will take place.

IPL 2018, Player Retention, Royal Challengers, IPL 11, Virat Kohli, Sarfraz Khan, AB de Villiers
Photo Credit: IPL/BCCI.

On the retention day, Chennai Super Kings decided to retain MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Ravindra Jadeja. Royal Challengers Bangalore chose to retain their captain, Virat Kohli along with AB de Villiers and Sarfaraz Khan. One-time champion team, Rajasthan Royals retained just one player along with Steven Smith while Kings XI Punjab too had just one retention in the form of Axar Patel.

Coming to Delhi Daredevils, they retained Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer whereas Sunrisers Hyderabad retained David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Mumbai Indians retained Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya while Kolkata Knight Riders retained Sunil Narine and Andre Russel. They did not retain their captain, Gautam Gambhir.

The auction ceremony for the upcoming season will be held on January 27 and 28, and that ceremony is expected to draw huge viewership as the dates of the event were already released last year, and the public is in known of information related to the event.

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