If a ball is bowled and no-one sees it ...

Does anyone give a toss? That's the question Chloe Saltau asks in the Age, with a legal dispute involving broadcast agreements meaning Australians haven't seen a single ball of the IPL this year.

More relevant, for the game that has hitched its future prosperity on Twenty20, is a survey of Indian TV audiences that suggests the lustre is fading even in the game's heartland. In season one, Indians abandoned soap operas for the IPL, but viewing figures for this year's first 26 games were down 22 per cent, the lowest in the league's history.

Explanations include cricket fatigue after India's World Cup win and the mass movement of the players to new teams.There are lessons for Cricket Australia, which will launch a city-based Big Bash League in December and hopes it will, eventually, generate as much TV revenue as international tours.