Interest here in Saturday’s Indian Premier League auction in Bengaluru seemed to exceed that of the opening match of the ODI series which begins on Sunday at the MCG, or indeed the fascinating Test match between England and Pakistan in Dubai.

“Who do you think will get the best deal this time?” asked the driver of the coach first thing in the morning before we embarked on a day-long trip of the Great Ocean Drive. He seemed nonplussed when I mentioned Ravindra Jadeja’s name. “Really? What’s he done?” asked the driver, an avowed cricket buff.

There are several reasons linked to T20 expertise (which Jadeja showed in timely fashion on Friday), balance of the squad and the greater need to hire Indian players, availability etc, but I don’t think the driver was entirely convinced.

By the end of the day, with reports of Vinay Kumar having bagged a million dollar deal, and more specifically Peter Siddle and Steve Smith remaining unsold having arrived, he was baffled.

The IPL continues to intrigue, overawe and outrage the Aussies (I suspect this may be true of other countries too), though the razzmatazz, glamour and the mega-bucks on offer have made an impact. In the days preceding the auction, interest has only grown — even the media here had one eye on the IPL, as India and Australia played the second T20.

While there are any number of critics here of the T20 format, record crowds at Sydney and Melbourne for the two matches against India apart, of course from a thumpingly successful Big Bash league, have alerted Cricket Australia to the enormous appeal of this format, and its impact on the balance sheet.

CA chief executive Donald Sutherland has said that more T20 games are likely next season. This has evoked mixed reactions from the fraternity, but Dean Jones has extended the argument to beyond just T20 internationals, and said that unless CA moves swiftly to hold its flock, it could lose players to leagues like the IPL.

Jones’s argument in the Melbourne Age is that while the cap for player salaries in IPL is $9 million, it is only $1 million in Australia, far lesser than the $2 million that the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League has adopted.

Jones fears that even players not representing Australia, will prefer to play T20 leagues rather than first-class cricket and thereby weaken the domestic structure.

The fact is, however, that T20 is a cash cow that few cricket-playing nations can afford to ignore. There is a school of thought which believes that this format will fizzle out because it is either too predictable or too unpredictable to sustain long-term interest.

That may be, but as economist John Maynard Keynes would say, in the long run we are all dead. The challenge for cricket administrators across, the world is to rationalise the itineraries for countries and create windows for T20 which even while they bring in the spectators and the moolah, do not impinge on the preservation of Test cricket.

Meanwhile, of course, there is also the 50-over format to worry about. A year back, it was believed that this format was kaput under the onslaught of T20. India’s spectacular World Cup triumph at least staved, if not disproved such fears.

Friday’s win was well-deserved — even if it came in the topsy-turvy T20 format — because it kind of broke the spell of defeats that Indian have suffered overseas in the past 8-10 months. Does this suggest a turnaround finally?

Hard to tell given the difference in formats, but the energy and body language of the Indian team was encouraging. Sunday’s match is only the first in the tri-series, but could provide a trend for the next four weeks.