Five reasons why the Indian Super League was a grand success

The first edition of the Indian Super League (ISL) threw up plenty of surprises, heartbreaks, triumphs and generated the right amount of noise amongst the followers of “the beautiful game”. For a sport like football which has long languished in the shadows of cricket, in India, the ISL was something that was due given that there were similar such leagues designed for a lot of the other sports in India.The ISL was fast paced, adrenaline packed and a melange of big names and there was little surprise that the sport finally managed to pull in a huge number of viewers – both loyalists as well as newcomers and gave it it's long awaited due.We take a look at the five biggest reasons why the tournament was a grand success:

#1 The ability to attract big names

Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet, Robert Pires, Luis Garcia, Joan Capdevila, Nicolas Anelka and David James were some of the biggest names in the world of football during their hey-day. True, they were all well past their prime but the fact that the league could bring such big names as ambassadors of the sport was a big thing. They were a major reason as to why crowds flocked to the stadiums to see them in action.

Be it for the full 90 minutes or just a few minutes, seeing these players in action was a thing of joy for most of the fans. Also, the fact that they played crucial roles during their teams’ matches, and thrilled the audiences with their footballing skills was the added icing on the cake.

As the league grows in stature there is hope amongst football fans that they would get to see the likes of Thierry Henry, Andrea Pirlo and a host of others play in India.