Friday, April 9, 2010

The great Indian Paise League (IPL) Tamaaaaaaaaaaaasha !

Eat cricket, sleep cricket and watch bollywood biggies! This seems to be the new formula for the citizens of India with IPL being the centre of attraction.

It contains too little of cricket. It is really impossible to be loyal to one team and hence the support to any specific team also dwindles. Earlier we used to feel that cricket is the ultimate winner and not any players or their franchisees. IPL despite all its hype, glamour, and money, is considered as 'The Circus in the Garb of the Cricket". Many Cricket greats do not consider T20 as real cricket. And the Indian Premiere League (IPL) has taken the Twenty20 (T20) to new heights; (the faster and higher you rise the bigger the fall). Kindly recollect the famous quote from the not too famous Vinod Ganpat Kambli “he took the elevator and I took the stairs” when he was compared to the legendary Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
Maybe Lalit Modi is taken a cue from it and has climbed the elevator and has pressed the button and is speeding with utmost speed. IPL having entered in its third edition has already over-grown in to a full size adult. In practical parlance a three year old just learns to walk wherein here IPL is already not walking but running in full speed sans any break
A few Star cricketers have quit the International Cricket (Test & ODI) to make them available for Indian Premiere League (IPL). This shows the tendency of international players that they prefer playing in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) than playing for their national teams.
With so much fun, exposure and too much money our young Indian Cricketers are bound to prepare for the Twent20 (T20) Cricket instead of going for a Test Cricket or ODI Cricketer. After all, Indian Premiere League (IPL) provides them with the short-cut to success, money and fame!
The players will never feel that they are representing the country. The owners of each franchisee are looking for only profits and the game has become too commercialised. The love for sports has got lost and the most watched and talked about game is loosing its sheen courtesy one man who will enter in to the record books for bringing disrepute to this game and will be solely responsible for killing Cricket.
With the impending T20 world cup majority of our players are either injured or not fully match fit which again would be a huge disadvantage for cricket lovers as we can see our team not performing to their best. But who cares as long as they make money for themselves rather than the pride of playing for the country.
From the viewer’s point of view - the entire six balls cannot be viewed unless you oblige yourself forcefully to watch those un-wanted advertisement. Earlier we used to blame our state owned Doordarshan for being unfair towards its viewers but today we grudgingly watch cricket in between advertisements.

Earlier IPL had one strategic time-out and in this season we have two in between the innings so that IPL can relay more advertisements. The third umpire also I believe has been told to take his own time before giving his verdict because it gives that much more opportunity for the sponsors to display their advertisements.

IPL is finding more and more means of making money be it airing it across big cinema theaters promising ad free viewing (except strategic time-out) but we did watch a few advertisements in between the overs too.

To sum it up I am not completely against this tamasha there have been a few good new finds too however the most positive factor which everyone will agree with me is our own DADA’s acrobatic fielding and catching which we could only dream of when he was playing for the country.

Lalit Modi will find himself in the record books for demolishing test cricket – Lalit Modi tussi great ho ! Indian cricket ka tohfa kabool karo !

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It is ofcourse a well analyzed point of view, but again I think there are many positives attached with the IPL. Players like Naman Oza, Dhawan from MI are a great finds who proved that they can deliver when it matters. IPL has provided them a platform similar to International class which was not possible in pre-ipl era.

Venkat Parthasarathy said...

Nice Post VB,

Cricket in India started of as a pastime, then the sport has evolved to become a passion, a religion and now an addiction. Somewhere down the line the commercial masters took over - from the time of Kerry Packer to the present Lalit Modi - the money magicians only tried to improvise the entertainment angle and thus the connoisseur's game slowly took a beating.

For the eternal purist Test Cricket will continue to be the first choice, but then will the longest form of the game hold fort in terms of frequency, given the slam-bang-tamasha version getting an overdose? Time will tell VB... Keep penning your thoughts... they give us more to cheer and keep our grey cells working too...!