Which IPL team do you support? If you’re happily following a side, you’re doing a whole lot better than me.

As an Englishman who likes all forms of cricket (apart from ODIs obviously, but does anyone like those?) I feel I need to support a team from the IPL or it’ll just pass me by for the third consecutive year. It’s not as easy as it sounds though. In football I support Norwich City because that’s where I was born, where I grew up, where I had spots and where I grew a ridiculous curtain haircut.

In cricket it’s Essex as it was Graham Gooch’s 333 that made me make my parents buy my first bat. Like most people, I need an emotional attachment to follow a team, which is exactly what’s missing from the IPL.

So what do I go for? The best team? The nicest cheerleaders? The easiest name to remember? The least-bad kit? Nope, I’ve gone for a very tenuous emotional attachment: Ravi Bopara. He plays for Essex, he’s a nice guy and great to watch. So therefore I shall support his team, Kings XI Punjab.

Yes, OK, so I just had to check I got their name correct. And yes I’ve just had to look at their scorecard in order to remind myself who else plays for them (Yuvraj, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Sreesanth). But it still counts; I am a fully-fledged Kings XI Punjab fan. GO PUNJABS (is that what people call them?).

But am I ready to commit while knowing so little about them? What if I stop liking them? And there’s always the temptation to cheat on them with Mumbai Indians, who Essex allrounder Graham Napier plays for. Also, what if Bopara moves to a different team, which could happen next year when a new franchise is introduced and player movement is increased. Do I support Bopara’s new team or stick with Kings? This might take a bit of getting used to.

Which is precisely the reason why the IPL continues to struggle to take off in Britain. All of us in the office are doing the same as I am – forcing ourselves into following a team. And if we, the great cricketing nerds, have to do that, what hope is there that the IPL will catch on in normal, non-geeky society?

Its move to the free-to-air ITV has boosted ratings from its time on Setanta, but how far can it go? Lalit Modi tweeted very proudly that the IPL’s viewing figures in Britain were higher than that of Rugby League. If he was after empty, meaningless triumphalist statements he may as well have said his tournament was even more popular than Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. The point is, it’s still small fry.

Sure, American Football teams are well supported outside the States and Premier League football sides have millions of followers across the globe. So, yes, sporting teams can transcend emotional attachments. But these are established sides with rich histories, stories and existing fanbases. They haven’t been created from scratch by Bollywood stars drunk on exposure.

Yet I want the IPL to take off in Britain. The advertising and sponsorship plugs are at best tacky and at worst a complete turn-off, but the quality of the cricket means it’s worth persisting in. It won’t happen, though, unless Modi takes the tournament to the UK for a summer so that the public is truly exposed to it and, vitally, can form attachments to teams.

Until then a minority, including myself, will have to go about quietly following their unnaturally chosen team. Go Punjabs. Whenever their next game is.

Daniel Brigham is assistant editor of The Wisden Cricketer

Follow him on Twitter: WisdenCric_Dan