Earlier in IPL 2026, and Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Muttiah Muralitharan had defended the the way T20 cricket has become increasingly batter friendly.

With a run-rate of 9.81, the ongoing IPL season has been the quickest-scoring one in the tournament’s history. The Sri Lankan spin legend suggested that this development is in tune with market demands.

“If we give fair wickets, the spectators will say it’s become boring because the T20 followers want entertainment, so they want to see fours and sixes.

It’s a big business, and you will lose sponsors and the interest of people if you change it,” said Muralitharan.

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, in Sportstar’s Insight Edge podcastoffered a response to Muralitharan’s opinion.

“Now, if I take Murali aside quietly into a room and I ask him for his honest opinion, he might have a different one. All of us were part of the system. We had to say so to him. There is no way he is going to say that there is no balance between that and all. He can’t say that and no bowler has actually said that. So, everyone goes through it and that’s the way you do it. If you are part of the system, you do it.

But Murali is a sweet guy. If the legend has spoken and he said that this is how it should be, then we respect that.

“But I have seen enough cricket over the years to know that if it gets a bit too much… I remember we used to play exhibition matches in those times to make some side income. And we used to turn up in all the small towns and people would come in the thousands to watch.

“Because it was fun and wasn’t serious, we used to hit a lot of sixes. So, they got very excited. Wow, you know, sixes. But then, when this was getting too much, after two or three sixes, I could visibly see their interest waning during the course of the game,” said Manjrekar.

The cricketer-turned-broadcaster added that this batting domination would eventually reach a saturation point.

“I have no doubt in my mind that maybe not today or tomorrow or the next IPL, but to give an excess of anything, people just sort of get slightly, almost bored with that. It’s human nature, though, isn’t it? If you get the same thing over and over again, year after year, you are going to get slightly bored with it. (He has) 800 odd wickets and he wants the fours and sixes, so we’ll let him have that one,” added Manjrekar.

Published on May 04, 2026