David Leggat: Pity TV went cold on coverage of IPL

Say what you like about the impact of television on our sporting lives, there's no doubt what exposure can do for your sport.

Too much time parked in front of the square box cannot be good for you. Take the national game. There are those who watch every scrap of rugby they can find each weekend.

You might ask why anyone would want to labour through 80 minutes of the god-awful Lions or Brumbies, and don't even get started on some of the pap served up from the Northern Hemisphere. But each to their own.

(Seriously, does anyone watch any of the Australian or South African derbies, save the spirited Reds against the perennially over-hyped Waratahs, which can get a bit tasty?)

Which brings us to the Indian Premier League. It began shortly after the World Cup, which ended its 42-day run on the sub-continent on April 2.

At that point, even the most committed late-night television cricket followers probably cried 'Enough! Bring on the powerlifters!"

The IPL quietly wends its way to a conclusion early tomorrow in Chennai, so a short recap is due.

The host franchise, Chennai Super Kings, coached by former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming and including swing bowler Tim Southee - although he's only been wanted for five of the 14 round robin games - are through.

They'll play either Dan Vettori's Royal Challengers Bangalore or the Mumbai Indians, whose squad includes Wellington allrounder James Franklin.

The question is: have you missed not watching the IPL in the small hours over the past seven weeks? Before answering, consider this: would you rather watch the occasional T20 slog vs the third re-run of an NRL game from four days earlier; blokes flying small planes between strategically placed towers (big in Germany) or enormous men picking up giant stones?

Tough choice, but I like some variety so I'd have tuned in for the occasional IPL outing, partly to keep an eye on the nine New Zealanders involved - although Scott Styris, Jacob Oram and Nathan McCullum's contributions for their teams amounted to a grand total of six appearances. Digressing a moment. Five New Zealand players have made what could be termed significant, or at least useful, contributions for their teams.

Jesse Ryder hit 292 runs for Pune at a strike rate of 148.22 (that being the key calculation in T20); Ross Taylor averaged a useful 36.2 from 12 appearances for Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals.

Brendon McCullum topped the aggregates at Kochi with 357 runs at 27.46; while Franklin made his mark for Mumbai in the last two games with important, unbeaten innings, the second of which got them into the final eliminator today against Bangalore.

Which leaves Vettori, whose captaincy allied to nine wickets at an economy rate of a fine 5.9, make him a standout performer. It helps having West Indian Chris Gayle and Indian test batsman Virat Kohli banging over 500 runs apiece.

Who will win tomorrow? It doesn't really matter when you can't watch it.

These days maybe that's a more significant factor than you might think. In turn, perhaps that says more about us and our sporting needs than you'd like to imagine.