33% Indians wanted IPL to continue
The Covid-19 situation is far more dire in the Hindi-speaking states and hence the responses may be reflective of the situation there vis-à-vis the southern states.
PRASHNAM INSIGHT #27
Prashnam asked nearly 3000 Indian adults across seven states – Bihar. Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, two questions:
The IPL cricket tournament is currently going on. What is your opinion?
IPL should be cancelled in lieu of the Covid-19 situation
IPL should continue as planned
Do not have a view
Did you watch the match yesterday between Punjab and Bangalore?
Yes
No
Do not want to answer
People in Hindi states want IPL to be scrapped; Southern states want it to continue
A significant majority of nearly 60% of people in the Hindi states want the IPL to be scrapped.
While a majority of 54% in the southern states want the IPL to continue.
Overall, 50% of people surveyed (weighted by population) want the IPL to be scrapped, 33% want it to continue and 18% don’t care either way.
Specifically, nearly 70% of Rajasthanis want the IPL to be scrapped while just 56% of Kannadigas want it to continue. The cliched north-south divide shows up again in cricket interests too.
Evidently, the Covid-19 situation is far more dire in the Hindi states and hence the responses are reflective of the situation there vis-à-vis the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Majority did not watch yesterday’s match between Punjab and Bangalore
41 per cent of the respondents admitted to watching IPL match played between Punjab and Bangalore.
26 per cent in Hindi states and 46 percent in the Southern states watched the IPL match. 22 per cent of the people in Rajasthan, 24 per cent of those in Bihar while 53 per cent of those in Karnataka, watched the IPL match, perhaps understandably given their tea, Bangalore was playing.
It is evident that there is no unanimous opinion on the continuation of IPL during these difficult times. It also proves yet again the tyranny of distance for India’s supposed ‘national’ media that tends to be largely reflective of just North India.
Respondent profile: 2,961 adult Indians responded to this survey. They were from seven states — Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh; and 248 districts. 72 per cent were male and 28 per cent female. 54 per cent were youth (<40 years), 36 per cent middle-aged and 10 per cent seniors (>60).
All India number is calculated based on the population-weighted average of these 7 states surveyed.
Read the full report in The Print here
The raw response data is available here