A visit to Wankhede - Where is the tri-colour??

The tri-colour is one of the key features at all the venues where the Indian cricketers play. The first thing that strikes you as one nears the Wankhede Stadium, the venue of the Match five in the Indian Premier League between hosts Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Challengers, is the absence of vendors selling the tri-colour. Even the small-time painters, who paint the faces of fans in saffron, white and green, were nowhere to be seen.

Once inside, the only flags that were fluttering were of the Mumbai Indians. The Team India T-shirts and hats were also replaced by the Mumbai Indian merchandise. Less, they might have been, but there were sure signs that the people were ready for the club-base loyalties.

Well, one might ask why such a kind of enthusiasm is missing when the Mumbai Ranji side plays the Karnataka Ranji side? Perhaps, the answer lies in the marketing of the game.

Azhar’s a VIP here

Mohammed Azharuddin might be an untouchable for the cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council, but there are enough in the Indian cricket board who do not lose any opportunity to get in touch with him. The former Indian captain, who played 99 Test matches for the country and is still to completely come out of the match-fixing shadow, was yesterday, along with wife Sangeeta Bijlani, seated in the VIP stand of the stadium and there was no dearth of people coming to him to exchange plesantries with him including the BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty and Indian team's chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar. A number of players who were able to make eye contact with the stylish Hyderabad batsmen also too didn't lose the opportunity to acknowledge his presence.

The ICC has in the past banned Azhar from commentating during international matches. Azhar has been visiting grounds during the domestic matches in India and although the IPL is not recognized by the ICC, his presence in the VIP box of a stadium which is hosting a match with so much money at stake should raise some eyebrows.

Bollywood touch

As expected there was no dearth of glamour during the match. The cheerleaders, the blaring music and the Bollywood stars were all in place for the first match of the Mumbai Indians. Minutes before the start of the match, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan took laps of the ground putting the much-needed energy into the crowd. The three feature in the upcoming Bollywood flick Tashan along with Akshay Kumar. Kumar, of course, in the brand ambassador of Delhi Daredevils and so was not present here.

Isn’t this cricket tamasha?

Whether at a political rally or at a cricket stadium, crowds are the indicator of public enthusiasm. We are habituated to manufactured crowds creating successful political rallies. It’s even customary to give out complimentary tickets to fill out cricket stadiums. But the brazenly massive scale of that crowd-packing by event-management companies and the local associations in most of the IPL matches has been staggering.

Returning from Bangalore, a co-passenger in the aircraft after reading the newspaper reports of the IPL inauguration said; are Indians getting this game bastardized? The gentleman felt the game has a history and not at the cost of the history that we should twist the rules for us to get entertained with cheerleaders and publicity hungry celebrities.

I tried to reason out the benefits of the T20. Fielding and running between the wickets will improve. Pacers would try varieties on their own and not expect a signal from the captain. Prodders will go out of the game. No more ‘Hang around and runs will come’. It will now be 'Get runs or you will be hanged'.

Apart from Warne and Muralitharan all spinners are getting thrashed. The art of spin bowling is dead. There are no replacements for Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

What about batting? Arjuna Ranatunga made a pertinent point that just as we in the subcontinent made a mistake in adopting the fast and power-packed European hockey, we are again making a mistake by getting into the power game of T20. Now it will be strength plus skill.

All the Indian international batsmen after the first round realized that proper cricketing shots will fetch you more runs than trying unconventional shots. When you are batting, you are constantly trying to out-think a bowler with these unconventional shots. That a bowler has ten fielders to short-circuit your moves is forgotten.

Something needs to be done immediately. Indian cricket, if not controlled, is in trouble. It’s the duty of Tiger Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who are members of the IPL governing council to act before the situation goes out of hand

What does Sreesanth think of himself?

The way Sreesanth behaved that day in the match between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab was horrible. He is too arrogant and may be because of which the team lost. He is playing along with the world’s fastest bowler Brett Lee who carries so well on the field. Sree should learn to behave well.

The oomph factor… Cricket Item Number

They are pompoming their way through what was once considered gentlemen's game, played in a staid and time-honoured manner. Today, it has metamorphosised into a 20-over circus, with Bollywood stars, fire shows the works. Oh, and the cheerleaders. In their itsy-bitsy dresses, in-your-face actions and those pom-poms, the young women are quite some crowd pullers.

Mostly foreigners, they are getting as much eyeballs as the men in white, oops make it yellow, orange, gold, black, fluorescent reds. In fact, the male of the species is walking in especially to have a dekko at these oomphy beauties.

Milking the Cash Cow!

Amidst boycotts and controversies, SET Max management are smiling all the way to the bank. SET Max has won the jackpot of broadcasting the IPL matches, much bigger than the cash pot it found during the world t20 days in South Africa. With IPL’s popularity growing day by day Sony has raised its ad rates from the current average rate, which is Rs.2.15 lakhs for 10 seconds to Rs.3-3.5 lakh. More on that, for the last 10 matches rates could go upto Rs.4 lakhs! Compare these with ad rates at the time of ODI world cup(Rs.1.5 lakhs/10 sec) and T20 World Cup(Rs.2 lakhs/10 sec) Sony has depicted IPL as ‘manoranjan ka baap’. Now it is turning out to be ‘ad rates ka baap’ too!

And the advertisers; they are a game too. They too want to play the game though entry fee is expensive! Though the ad rates are quite high that is not turning away the advertisers and why not when you are reaching a much bigger audience!

Importing Cheerleaders! (The NY Article)

IN the blink of an eye, India has gone from faith, prudence and chastity to ... Brittany, Courtney and Tiffani. On Sunday, a team of Washington Redskins cheerleaders landed in Bangalore to help create India’s first cheerleading squad.

According to the Redskins’ Web site, the cheerleaders will “conduct a national audition of Indian women.” The aim of the exercise is to set up a squad of indigenous pompom wielders for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, one of eight teams that will play in the Indian Premier League, a rich new Indian cricket league.

“Cheerleading is a unique American spirit and the fact that it is now a bridge into India and their national sport cricket, speaks to the world vision of the Washington Redskins,” said an American spokesman involved with the effort. But it speaks to other things, too. It shows how brash India has become, and also how this brash new India has transformed cricket — once the most staid of sports — into a game that is perilously close to a circus.

Yet how paradoxical it is, and how delightful, that Bangalore, a city that has leapt to global prominence on the back of work outsourced by America, is now itself outsourcing from America — outsourcing glamour, no less. How will India respond to cheerleading? An old language scholar I spoke to declared himself unsure of what a Hindi neologism for “cheerleader” might be. He offered “utsaah-pradarshak naari” — “a woman who displays enthusiasm” — as a candidate.

But when I countered that the job of the woman was as much to spur on a crowd as to spur herself on, we agreed that “utsaah-utpaadak naari” — “a woman who generates enthusiasm” — might be more apt. (We ruled out “utsaah-utpaadak-pradarshak naari” — “a woman who displays and generates enthusiasm” — on grounds of unwieldiness, although we have a sneaking suspicion that Hindi speakers will simply import “cheerleader” into their lexicon, as a loan word from English.

Inevitably, moral scolds — of which India, as a society, has a surplus — will write letters to the editor complaining about the vulgarity/anti-Indianness/neocolonialism of the cheerleaders. It is conceivable, too, that there will be demonstrations outside the cricket stadium by women’s groups and Hindu fundamentalists.

All this, however, pales when compared to the broader lessons. With the Redskins cheerleaders on Indian soil, one can safely declare that the British cultural influence in India has been entirely replaced by an American one, cricket notwithstanding. India’s relationship with the United States — economic, strategic, diasporic and cultural — is now its primary external alliance, with a complex nuclear deal at one end of the spectrum and 12 cheerleaders and two choreographers at the other.

First day, First Show

What a Show! The IPL show kicked off with a spectacular show today that absolutely was world class. The stadium was absolutely jam packed - some 50,000 people crowded in to the Chinnaswami Stadium to see what kinds of stunts will be in store. And they were not disappointed. Shankar Mahadevan was absolutely brilliant, as he came out to one of the better live performances that I’ve seen. He sang several songs, including the hit “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”, quite apt for this occasion.
There was no shortage of fancy-shmonshy laser shows, and fancily dressed performers doing their thing. Lots of song-and-dance with floating dancers, dancers on stilts and Japanese models in bubbles and all kinds of interesting showgirls! At one point, there were 8 acrobats apparently hung mid air holding the flags of the 8 teams! It was quite brilliant if you were in the stadium! But the real show-clincher for me was the fireworks show. The whole sky over the stadium was like it was on fire, the dark of the night completely overwhelmed by all kinds of fireworks. Spectacular!
And as Ravi Shastri introduced the captains, the stadium thundered with applause. Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Ganguly and Sehwag received roaring applause. Even Shane Warne received a noticeably loud applause from the audience. They’ve certainly warmed up to the idea of foreigners playing (and even leading) the IPL teams. But it was Sachin who received the biggest roar by far! Well, no matter which team he’s leading, the little master always demands loads of respect! The stadium even broke out in chants of “Sachin… Sachin…” . Fun Stuff!

IPL ads making me sleep!

Is it just me or are the ads that are coming out of the teams very inspid? With all the resources, the star power and the big budgets, I certainly had expected much more out of it. I think everyone’s gotten a bit carried away with all the ads.
Take for example, the Kolkata ad. All the Viking-with-the-helmet ads are just plain silly, but the one starring SRK is pretty good. I have just one problem with it - It barely shows a bat and ball, and looks a LOT like a SRK item number. Now, we’re certainly not experiencing a SRK-item-number-drought, with SRK making an appearance on prime time TV several times a day with all his ads. Do we really need another of his item number?


This phenomenon, for reasons that I don’t really understand, has spread everywhere. The newest Mumbai Indians ad features Hritik Roshan and a kid, and guess what, its another item number. Now, don’t get me wrong, Hritik is a great dancer and all, but I absolutely don’t want to see him in a cricket team ad. The Mohali ad is slightly better, with at least some pretence of introducing cricket into the ad, but it is again quite clear that the whole ad revolves around Preity Zinta. And I can’t even understand what Vijay Mallya is doing in the cricket ad?

IPL Tickets: An Analysis

The ticket prices across the board have taken me by surprise, quite honestly. The ticket prices vary dramatically not only across stadiums, but even at the same ground, the ticket prices are priced widely. Coupled with the marked lack of interest at some venues of the tickets, this is quite surprising.
I think the owners had seen this coming, and have tried to price the tickets appropriately. The Mohali stadium, for example, is offering a large number of tickets for 50 bucks! 50 bucks!?! That’s way cheaper than Coffee at Coffee Day! The Punjab Kings, for sure, can expect a full stadium. To compensate for the large number of tickets that are being sold so cheaply, the Mohali Stadium has tickets going all the way up to Rs. 12,000! I’m sure there are a lot of Preity Zinta fans that are willing to pay that much, especially since Preity has promised to watch all home team matches. But it may be getting desperate, as Preity and Bret Lee were seen outside the Stadium on Sunday, personally autographing the tickets.
There have been other surprises as well. The Deccan Chargers are selling tickets with some awesome promises. From their official blog: “Refreshments would be provided free to all spectators in all the stands. Fans would also be treated to a variety of exciting entertainment shows and fireworks at the stadium. Deccan Chargers have also announced a lucky draw scheme. With every ticket, you get a coupon for a chance to win fabulous prizes which include a Mercedes Benz (C Class), seven Maruti Swifts, 35 Yamaha motorbikes and 35 colour televisions.”

The Shoaib Akhtar Saga

Well, you knew that the IPL would turn into a soap opera so soon. After flip-flopping for a few days, the BCCI decided that Akhtar would not be able to play in the IPL unless his masters at the Pakistan Cricket Board give him a “no-objection” certificate. That’s the official story, anyway. But something doesn’t seem right.
For starters, the PCB had explicitly said that the ban applies only to him playing for Pakistan in international cricket. Then why is the BCCI making a big deal about the no-objection certificate? But then, the BCCI has not cancelled his contract at all, but just said he can’t play. I don’t think that has any legal standing. Then there’s another issue. The ICC is running a separate investigation of its own about the bribery and match-fixing allegations made by Shoaib. And then the PCB is actually suing Akhtar for Rs 20 Crores!
Something is fishy. Why do I get the feeling that it is going to get very very ugly if he doesn’t get to play in the IPL. But it may not come to it. Akhtar is appealing the PCB’s decision today and we can hope to hear what happens within this week.

BCCI’s stupid media restrictions

The BCCI today came out with the so-called media rules for journalists (and presumably bloggers). The rules are so ridiculously absurd, that if it were announced a couple days earlier, people would have thought its an april fool’s joke. The BCCI says that media folks who take pictures at the games will not be allowed to use them anywhere without the BCCI’s explicit written permission. So let me get this straight. The photographer brings his camera, goes to the match, clicks a bunch of pictures, and then needs to ASK THE BCCI to publish them online?!?
But wait, it gets worse. The photographers are going to HAVE TO upload ALL the pictures they’ve taken to the IPL website in under 24 hours. If they fail to do so, they will not be allowed into subsequent matches?!? How stupid is that?

The IPL can’t keep an updated website, and they want me to believe that they’re going to be able to handle thousands of 6-7 MB image files being uploaded simultaneously?Photographers take anywhere from 100-500 images per match,and that means the IPL website will support 900-1000 GB of upload everyday? Ha! Don’t make me laugh. I’m willing to bet a thousand bucks that their website will crash on day 1.
But why is the BCCI being so stupid about this? How are online news editions like cricinfo and bloggers like us going to report on the matches if they’re not allowed to use the images? And what’s BCCI’s problem anyway? Why do they want so much control on everything? I can’t even imagine how these images can be “abused” as the BCCI is claiming. If the BCCI is going to go about suing bloggers and online media content providers, how are we going to keep up the IPL hype that they’ve created?

ICL kicks off new inter-country tournament!

After their latest tournament got burried in the pre-IPL hype (did you know the finals are going on?), the ICL is now trying out something new. They just announced an inter-country ICL tournament, which is kind of away from their inter-city league format.
The latest tournament, to be played in Hyderabad, is going to have 3 teams - India, Pakistan and “Rest of the world”. Hopefully they’ll have better luck this time with the “ICL World Series 2008″. Since the ICC isn’t recognizing the ICL, they might as well go international and try to get more exposure.

Is IPL really to blame for the test loss?

The Blogosphere is ripe with allegations, accusations and analysis of India’s spectacular defeat to South Africa in the second test. It was India’s worst defeat in some 50 years, and IPL is taking a lot of blame for it. Folks are speculating on a wide range of reasons - From the distractions of the IPL auctions, to the players taking it easy before the big IPL games start to avoid unnecessary injuries. While many of these theories are well reasoned, I am inclined to disagree with them. The IPL had nothing to do with the defeat.
For one, even the South African’s are in the IPL teams, and several of them turned out very good performances for South Africa. And then, there’s the issue of how they played so well last match. No, the real reason for India’s superbly spectacular defeat, in my opinion, is far more simple.

The Indians played bad cricket. Horrible Cricket. And they deserved to lose.
I think we shouldn’t read too much into this kind of defeat. Cricket is exactly the kind of game where you can have great days followed by horrible days, right next to each other. The Indians completely failed as a team, and I would argue that they failed to play as a team in the first Test too, when all the Batsman played for records. It didn’t seem like anyone was going for the win in the first test match. And then, they approached the second test with the trademark Indian overconfidence, “Ha! It’s a flat wicket at our home stadiums. Lets play like a ODI match and score 900 runs!”. And that is what led to the downfall!
No matter what Sehewag says, Test matches can’t be played like a Twenty20 game. Test matches need a different mind set all together, and if you approach it with the wrong frame of mind, then the game is going to eat you up. Tests require a lot more patience, planning and partnerships. The Indians completely ignored this, and got hammered for it. Well, its not all bad. Hopefully they’ve learnt their lesson.
But that’s exactly the good thing about the IPL. No matter which way the game goes, one team will always wins and the good thing is that both teams will be Indian. So India always wins!

Shoiab is really out!

When I first read this yesterday, I thought it was an April fool’s joke, but apparently its real! The Pakistan Cricket Board had one too many Shoaib encounters, and have decided to impose a 5 year ban on him! That effectively ends his international career, since he’s already 32. But I really don’t understand what the latest trigger was for the PCB to show Akthar the door. And Shoaib predictably came out saying he has been victimised.
But I’m of the opinion that this might actually be a good thing for Shoaib in the long run. He’s now free to concentrate on his IPL career. He’s got at least 5 years in the IPL remaining, and that’s plenty of time to become rich and famous. I don’t know what’s he’s worried about in the end, actually. I think it’ll be a good career move for him to apply for an Indian work visa and come live in Kolkata. I think he’ll enjoy it there!

Beyonce to dance at IPL opening ceremony?

This is being reported by the Times of India, so please take it with a pinch of salt. Anyway, the gossip is that Beyonce, who’s apparently pals with Vijay Mallya, has agreed to do a 15-minute dance number at the inaugural IPL match at Bangalore. Vijay Mallya has managed to talk the hottie into flying down to Bangalore just for this special, inaugural match on the 18th of April.
Oh, that’s not all. Also, apparently, Katrina Khaif and Deepika Padukone are not too happy that Beyonce will be trouncing them and began a silly war of words. The article even goes into name-dropping mode, claiming Vijay Mallya is sending his private jet to fly down David and Victoria Beckham among a bunch of other celebrities. Even SRK, apaprently has managed to convinve Amitabh Bacchan to cut the ribbon at the Kolkata Inaugural match.
I don’t know how much of this is true, but it is definitely a very entertaining read
Oh, and By The Way, it’s also probably an April Fool’s joke