IPL...Exciting but becoming old?

I want to touch on the IPL today. Now first of all, i'm not talking about twenty twenty cricket, but the IPL in particular. I wonder if this annual tournament is going to become a detriment to the game of cricket and T2o's. At the minute, this tournament is fantastic - crowds of 50,000 regularly, a carnival atmosphere, the world's greatest cricketers split up into 8 teams. An auction to buy the greatest players? What excitement right? Well yes, at this point in time. Tell me, when Adam Gilchrist retires, when Sachin Tendulkar decides he has enough money, when Shane Bond's back gives in, when Kevin Pieterson decides to concentrate on test cricket, when Chris Gayle decides to spend more time with his family, when Shane Warne decides to take up his own bookies..the point i'm getting at is, are we all loving this tournament because of the games and teams or because of the old generation of great players who are coming to an end - basically an excuse to watch these greats play?

In my opinion the world's greatest cricket tournament is still the 50 over world cup, it's history, the ebbs and flows, and the excitement of a full day of cricket for the spectators. When you go to a game of cricket, you want to be able to have time to go to the toilet, read the sports pages in the newspaper, read the daily program before the batting team is 3-50, converse with your fellow fans, and of course, have a few beers. A game of cricket is one to be enjoyed, a relaxing day out. Sorry i'm getting away from the point here!

The IPL is a great competition, and hugely succesful at the moment. But in five years time when the golden generation of cricketers have all retired and all we have is young players no one has heard of; and players trying to make extra cash because they aren't good enough to play for their countries.

I think the day will come where this tournament will have to change, where it will not have the players to support the money being put into it. Unless of course, the next generation of cricketers is as good as the last?