I P L Mania

IPL (Indian Premier League) mania seems to ride high on India, modeled after football’s EPL (English Premier League) and a recovered version of the flop show called ICL, IPL seems to be a rage among the cricket buffs and is attracting the otherwise non-cricketing audiences as well; it is very much anticipated as the ‘thing of the future.’ It seems like the BCCI, business tycoons and entertainment industry flooded this new concept with filthy money, whether it be the auction of teams or of the players, the bidders did not hesitate to pay off whopping amounts to own their desired franchise and make sure that their desired players play for it, without getting into the economics of the money involved its adequate to say that the amount infused in the 8 IPL teams is enough to resettle China’s earthquake survivors.
With controversial cheerleaders dancing near the boundary and stars from Bollywood matching the steps, one may wonder does cricket, the gentleman’s game as its intended to play; survive among all these fireworks and gilts? India being the cricketing nation it is, never previously thought before cheering a four or a six hit by an Indian batsman, irrespective of the state for which he played. I will use my example to demonstrate the untouched aspect of this trailer format of the game. I was born on the 24th of April and coincidently this happens to be the birth day of Sachin Tendulkar as well, after his exploits in England in the test series of 1994, I instantly became an admirer of this living legend and what followed was my cherished memories of the 1996 World Cup where he was named the master blaster, the 1998 back to back centuries against Australia where he scored a hundred and won the tri series for India on 24th April, the 1999 World Cup where he came back to score a century 2 days after his father’s funeral, The186 not out in India, his 2003 genius in the World Cup for which he won the Golden Bat, double century on Australian turf on 2nd January 2004, his streak of scoring 90’s against England last year and his recent three consecutive half centuries against South Africa; all this and many more of his innings are viewed and memorized by me over the years and as a kid I have even cried when he used to get out. Last evening I was taking full delight in his batting against Kings XI Punjab but Mumbai’s loss was essential for Delhi’s Semi- Final hopes to stay alive.
I saw an unconscious and unknown myself cheer my lungs out when Tendulkar got out, a sight unexpected to my mother and she wasn’t too amused to see this reaction of mine as she has witnessed my fad over the legend’s batting over the years. What I want to point out is that just like me; even you must be facing this problem of confused loyalties in this new saga called IPL. Should I go with the team which has my favorite player? Are my loyalties to my hometown or towards the owner of a particular whom I admire in his respective profession? Should I go gaga over the brand ambassador’s looks who is for a particular team? Should I cheer the team which plays the best? Or should I just go with team which has the best cheerleaders?????
The answers to these questions are highly subjective and the struggle between reason and passion to support a team or a player is among all of us, for people who belong to any of the eight cities after which the teams are formed should not face this struggle but for the rest of the viewers it still is a question unanswered as to which team do they cheer for? Among all this chaos and interlinked galaxies of players, one must ponder over some other questions like- Will I ever cheer for an Indian player who was instrumental to defeat the IPL team I supported? Will I land up cheering for a Shoaib, taking Sehwag’s wicket in an ODI because he did the same in an IPL match when he played for my team? Or will most of the viewers identify with the Indian players who don’t belong to their IPL teams?IPL is surely entertaining and these cocktailed teams provide a value for your money but unlike football where this trend is adapted over a period of time, cricket has a lot of international matches all round the year where it might just be difficult for players to gel as a national team after this IPL fever. The other concerns this IPL puts forward is that yesteryears players were groomed to play test cricket and with IPL the new generation might be seen struggling in the original format of he game which is really a ‘test’ of your talent and ability