AP PHOTOS: In cricket-crazy India, the Indian Premier League is a reason to celebrate
NEW DELHI (AP) — The world's richest franchise cricket league is ongoing in India, a cricket- crazy country of 1.4 billion. The Indian Premier League features top players from around the world and attracts hundreds of millions of TV viewers.
While the format leads to high-tempo action on the field, Twenty20 cricket has also sparked an evolution in off-field entertainment in cricket. Cheerleaders dancing on podiums, DJs sitting behind decks spinning tunes, and fancy dress themes are all part of the T20 game for crowds, bringing a colorful new twist for those at the stadium and broadcast viewers.
This year, 65 international cricketers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, England and Afghanistan have joined India's high-profile players in the tournament.
The tournament started March 23 and the final is set for June 3 at Ahmedabad. The championship decider will be played at Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest cricket venue with a seating capacity of 132,000.
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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
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Sidheshwar Shirsath, who lives in the suburbs of India's financial capital, Mumbai, first started buying gold when he got married nine years ago. Shirsath, 35, works as a driver and earns about 55,000 rupees ($889 Cdn) a month. He decided that gold might be a good way to build a nest egg for his family's future. Whenever he had some cash to spend, he purchased gold jewelry, including rings and bangles, and he now has about 130 grams of gold, worth more than one million rupees ($16,000 Cdn). "Sometime after I first bought gold, the rates started increasing, so my interest in investing in it also grew," Shirsath said. In recent months — to his delight — the price has skyrocketed. Gold globally was trading at $3,298 US an ounce on Friday morning, up more than 25 per cent since the start of the year, and up 42 per cent compared with a year ago. Gold's value globally has surged amid global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, including concerns about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy. The precious metal is often seen as a "safe haven" asset that investors flock to during periods of economic turbulence. In India, the price has risen even more sharply and is up 30 per cent since the beginning of the year — with the additional increase driven by the rupee's depreciation against the American dollar. But for many Indians, like Shirsath, gold is more than an investment. "Gold is very close to Indian women," he said, his wife, Manisha, sitting next to him in their modest home, adorned with a heavy gold choker and gleaming bangles. "They need gold — especially for festivals and weddings." In India, gold is primarily purchased it in the form of jewelry because it can be a way of showing off one's wealth and status. The precious metal also holds enormous religious and cultural significance. It is part of the dowry in weddings, for example, and it is considered to be auspicious to buy gold during certain Hindu festivals. "India is a very unique market for gold ," said Sachin Jain, regional CEO, India, for the World Gold Council, a global industry association. "Gold is a part of the social fabric, and you don't need to be in any particular economic strata to consume gold. "We all in India have a family doctor, so to say, and we have a family jeweller." In rural India, where most of the country's 1.4 billion people still live — and with many not having easy access to bank accounts — gold is a popular way of storing savings, Jain said. All of this means that India is one of the world's largest consumers of gold, with the country's demand for the precious metal hitting about 800 tonnes a year. The steep price, however, is having an impact on the quantity of the metal that people are buying. 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