The season India had to hand over
The second IPL was supposed to be the easy one. The format worked, the money was in, the audience had been proved. Then the calendar collided with the general election. With polling spread across five phases in April and May, and with the 3 March attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore fresh in every security assessment, the Government of India declined to commit paramilitary forces to the tournament. The BCCI's choice was to postpone or to leave. On 24 March 2009 it announced the season would be played in South Africa. The first ball was bowled on 18 April. Three and a half weeks to relocate an entire league.
Unfamiliar grounds, familiar noise
Newlands, Kingsmead, Centurion, the Wanderers. Matches began at odd hours by Indian clocks, South Africa running three and a half hours behind IST, and yet the viewing figures held. What did not hold were the batting averages. The bounce and the sideways movement at the start of the South African winter made this the hardest IPL to bat in. Rajasthan Royals, champions ten months earlier, were bowled out for 58 by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second match of the season and never recovered.
Last to first
The best story of 2009 is a table. In 2008, Deccan Chargers finished eighth of eight with two wins and Royal Challengers Bangalore finished seventh with four. In 2009 those two contested the final.
Deccan were rebuilt around Adam Gilchrist, who captained, kept, opened and won Player of the Tournament, and around R. P. Singh, who took 23 wickets and the Purple Cap. Gilchrist's 85 off 35 against Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final at Centurion effectively decided that match inside an hour. Matthew Hayden took the Orange Cap with 572 runs for Chennai. Bangalore's revival came the slower way, four wins in their first nine and then a run that carried them past Chennai in the second semi-final at the Wanderers.
A final worth the trouble
Deccan Chargers made 143 for 6 on 24 May at the Wanderers, Herschelle Gibbs top-scoring with 53. It should not have been enough. Bangalore fell six runs short at 137 for 9 with Pragyan Ojha taking 3 for 28. Anil Kumble, forty years old that season, had taken 4 for 16 in the same match and was named player of the final on the losing side. Deccan, who had won two matches in the whole of 2008, were champions.
What it changed
The obvious lesson was that the IPL was portable. A tournament built entirely on Indian broadcast revenue could be picked up, put down eight thousand kilometres away, and still work — a precedent the league used again in 2014 and 2020. The less obvious lesson was about the product. Away from Indian pitches, 140 became a defendable score, bowlers mattered, and the cricket was better for it. Ask anyone who watched both 2008 and 2009 which season had the better matches and you will get an argument.