Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the veterans of Indian cricket who has closely seen the growth of Indian Premier League (IPL), evolving from its formative days till the 17th season, that is currently underway.

The Chennai spinner, who currently plies his trade for the Rajasthan Royals franchise, said when he was first picked for the league, his only focus was to learn from international cricketers who were his teammates at various franchises.

“As a youngster coming into the IPL, I was only looking to learn from the big stars, I did not think about how the IPL would look 10 years down the line. I can say that, having been in the IPL for so many seasons, the IPL is huge. Sometimes I wonder if IPL is even cricket, because sport takes a backstage (during IPL). It’s so huge. We do end up practising in advertisement shoots and sets! That’s where the IPL has gotten to,” said Ashwin.

Recalling an earlier conversation with former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris, who once predicted that the league would last for a maximum of two-three seasons, Ashwin said no one thought that the IPL would turn out to be such a blockbuster tournament.

The Indian Premier League is undoubtedly the biggest cricket league around the world, and its instant success not only led to the growth of the other cricket leagues globally but also has inspired other sports to take the franchise route. It was only after the IPL that tournaments like ISL (football), PBL (badminton), PVL (volleyball), PKL (kabaddi) came up in the country.

“No one envisaged the kind of growth that the IPL has had. I still remember a conversation I had with Scott Styris when we were both at CSK. He told me that when he was playing for the Deccan Chargers in the initial seasons of IPL, he did not think the IPL would last for more than two-three years. Initially, there was a big influx of money,” Ashwin said on the Club Prairie Fire podcast hosted by Michael Vaughan and Adam Gilchrist.

The 37-year-old also picked a recent trend which he had noticed in the IPL, and felt that the teams have become wiser in choosing their players.

“Look over the years you’d think that the IPL is one tournament that is largely won at the auctions. I believe the auctions are a very important facet of this league, but the beauty of the IPL is that franchises have evolved into getting their teams right. There’s no one way to skin a cat. No one player is bigger than the team. No one slot is bigger than others. The teams invest wisely,” he said.