Gilchrist bowled over by IPL

Melbourne: Adam Gilchrist is amazed by the ever-increasing love for cricket in India and compared the Indian Premier League (IPL) next to Sydney Olympics.

"It was quite overwhelming to see an event capture the attention and mindset and imagination of a country quite like it," Gilchrist was quoted as saying in The Australian Friday.

"The only thing I can think of that was comparable was maybe the Olympics when they were in Sydney. But the Olympics was about two weeks, this was 45 days every night," said the former Australia vice-captain.

Gilchrist, who retired from all cricket in Australia at the end of last season, could not believe the passion and interest of Indians in cricket could go to another level with IPL.

"It felt like that at 8pm the whole country would tune in no matter what the game was or who was playing. It was front page of the papers every day. The whole concept will be looked back on as a landmark in the history of cricket."

"The great discussion at the moment is whether we carve out a window (in international cricket) for the IPL. I envisage that potentially, within 10 years, it could be more a case of trying to carve out a window for international cricket as this format becomes more of a staple diet," Gilchrist said.