Ambimama - India

I receive lot of mails from friends and others who express their total unpleasant experience in watching the IPL matches. The opening ceremony and cheerleaders’ dancing is not my way of watching Cricket. The girls themselves had shyness on their faces!
BCCI is at last capable of killing itself due to arrogance and not understanding the common cricket fan of India. IPL is not Cricket.

I post here a forward from Karansingh
You may send your share of unpleasant and un-cricket feeling to his mail ID. karan.singh@minglebox.com
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There was a term for these kinds of matches: ‘masala matches’. They were basically exhibition matches played out for charity or for some eccentric, eclectic man’s interests. But the equations have changed vastly as have the viewer expectations.
There is nothing wrong with matches being dubbed ‘masala’ or even ‘tamasha’. Everybody knows the implication. Everybody knows they are going to go home happy. In fact Twenty20 prides itself on the fact that it is designed to include the hoopla previously abhorred in cricket matches. So, in come the American football cheerleaders, limber ladies on stilts and pyrotechnics of the guzzling kind. How China would wish the Olympics had the cheer and heart of the IPL extravaganza than the cage-like ferocious security that follows the Olympic Torch wherever it goes!

If the Indian Cricket League (ICL) was about showing that might isn’t always right, the IPL is about everything big. And yes, here size matters. If the ICL has scantily clad cheerleaders or dancers from Russia and other East European countries, in keeping with the ‘cold war’ (pun intended), the IPL had decided to look west to the Americas. One former Indian Test captain told media persons that Twenty20 had enough action packed into the three hour odyssey and did not require the peripheral entertainment. Pray, when then are the team franchisees signing on actors from the Hindi cinema as brand ambassadors (in cases where they don’t happen to be film stars themselves)?

Yes, the equations have changed. And the numbers have soared with repulsive vulgarity. Imagine the amount of money that has been pumped into the IPL so that Ricky Ponting plays alongside young (and now, very rich) Ishant Sharma, his nemesis on India’s tour to Australia!
(Watch that action in the lung opener this evening with the Kolkata Knightriders taking on the Bangalore (why isn’t it Bengaluru, if everywhere else the name applies?)
Royal Challengers.)

Ponting who couldn’t stand the sight of an Indian player hurling a repartee (also, because the latter happened to be doing well and making Ponting and his fellowmates’ lives hell) is now willing to play the role of a mute team member in an Indian side in the lure of expanding his enterprising horizons while encashing those mega dollar cheques!

True Story:
Thanks to the IPL money mania, not only is my mother encouraging we all take up our bats at 6am in the morning (!) but also, that we will not be allowed to block the television for cricket unless we get paid to watch!
Last night, after absorbing a fairly gluttonous take on television about the IPL, I found myself singing the Mumbai Indians theme song, much to the annoyance of the family. Despite their
repeated cajoling, the words kept coming back without my slightest persuasion. But that how the money is being pumped and this is how the public will be fuelled to set the cash registers ringing. After all, for these enterprising (not to mention, loose stringed) franchisees, there is a matter of recovery of crores of rupees that have made the BCCI not only fat but also, a serious contender competing in the “Biggest Loser Jeetega” contest! (All in humourous vein, of course!)

There is little doubt that the IPL will be a success, not necessarily though in the eyes of a cricket purist or an aficionado who views the game corrupted by the lure of luxury. There are three reasons why the IPL, even as a loud and colourful entertainer, is a watchful concern.
One, there is so much money at stake that breaking even may only happen in 3-4 years time and that’s the better franchisees we are talking about. The initial attraction for the IPL may wean once the novelty wears off. Sustaining interest in the face of other ‘rebel’ or parallel ventures is paramount. (The IPL is fuelling the environment inadvertently by its pompous display of Twenty20-‘s wealth generation ability.)

Two, the ICL has drilled in the fact that team loyalty over country is a time consuming process (Does anyone remember ICL’s first season?). But the ICL has shown enough gumption to not only make a more absorbing second season but fielded a fighting ‘Indian unit’ in the World Series, showing good cricket will always have an audience. The IPL, that has a large contingent of already established players, may find its charitable goal of fielding an Indian unit without the big guns an onerous task. (Wise then that Lalit Modi is not taking Kapil Dev’s bait, not for the moment anyway). But the youngsters will have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the world’s best and this should result in a greater level of professionalism domestically. (Why else are they already forfeiting domestic prestigious tournaments such as the Times Shield ‘A’ Division s/f matches
for the IPL?)
There is the greater danger that sledging will now be domesticated and international cricketers plays like gentlemen!

Three, the IPL can (and most probably will be) a runaway success, but in India. How much global audience percentage is acquired remains to be seen for a largely ‘Indian’ enterprise. Very soon, other cricket boards will want a piece of the pie (Australia being a case in point). What happens then? More importantly, the BCCI has also the duty to translate IPL success to build a Test team and how it redresses the domestic competitions (with its miniscule audience) is still a big question mark.

Even as I hail from Mumbai, I am not convinced I want to support the Mumbai team. Not Mumbai alone. My favourite cricketers are scattered now in the four (correct: eight) parts of the country. If the BCCI and the IPL sub-committee want the viewer to experience the ‘entertainment package’ while promoting divisions, why should I limit myself to any one team when I can have them all?
This is the IPL’s (unofficial) Twenty20 theme - “Have your cake; and eat it too!”
For the moment, all roads lead to Bangalore…oops…Bengaluru!
Do you agree with what I say? Do you have an opinion of your own? Well, here’s your chance to be heard (and to be refuted…). Exercise those muscles, only of the mind and your typing hand though. Only one rule applies here: Don’t sledge.

Saeed Anwar scored a 194 record one day score and I was present among the Chennai Chepauk crowd to give a standing ovation. Sehwag and Tendulkar smashed Shoaib Akthar in Sharjah and I was watching that from a Pakistani restaurant in Abu Dhabi.

And I watched Live, with my Family, in Test Matches Mark Waugh and Shane Warne giving their best. They loved the atmosphere, green and crowd cheering. They did not switch channels when I watched cricket on TV from that day. They understood the passion for the game.

Came IPL and now I switch channels and see the boring serials. It has become the celebrities’ match like the good old days of Lords watching the Cricket. Common man is forgot in the noises made by the film and business tycoons cheering.
Quality Cricket and Entertainment has become Lords Game again.

Mcullum starts with a record 158 runs in Twenty-20. Kolkatta wins the first match and again a record 222. But Chennai beats the record with 240 runs.

Now Gilchrist is on fire. With 2 sixes and a four in a over! Oh! He is out. Kolkatta will have a tough time. 3 wickets gone.
The names of great players, the nations and the side they are playing - again the names – Riders, Challengers… it will take some time before I familiarize myself and enjoy the run feast and heat.

I went to the Marina beach with my family for a week end. I was surprised by the car crowd and with much difficulty had to park in a lane and walk. The sea breeze was nice to beat the heat in Chennai. We had some hot chilly bhajji, fried corns and just relaxing.

While coming back we wanted to have some food. It was 10 p.m. only. The Krishna sweets which had a restaurant upstairs were our choice. The service was very bad, the quality was poor and it was expensive. Krishna sweets is good only for mysore pak and not the restaurant type of foods like Masala Dosa, Poori chana and Chat items.

Chennai has to improve in providing quality food and fast service. Already we have decided not to pay any more visits to Krishna sweets. And we may not recommend to others also.