Move over reality shows; IPL is here to bring the TRPs’ down for the tear-jerky soaps and song-and-dance shows. But IPL is itself turning out to be a huge reality show; agreed it is ‘real’ but it is becoming more of a show these days. Where is cricket you ask? Well cricket is definitely there but the media attention is more on the stuff that sells in public and cricket for sure takes a backseat in this. Harbhajan’s tight slap to Sreesanth, the we-are-the-moral-police brigade hitting it out at the teeny-weeny costumes of cheerleaders, racism accusations within the cheer-girls squads, public spat between the team owners and team captains, ICC code-abuse with owners in players’ dressing rooms etc. IPL has been there, done that and seen all. After watching a weeping Sreesanth on TV I really thought that he was crying ‘coz his team owner Preity Zinta had hugged Yuvraj and not him ha ha. But later the news trickled in through the news channels that Bhajji had hit him just after the match. How could Harbhajan Singh walk away with just… JUST… a 5 international matches ban? Yeah I agree he lost 3 crores for not playing in the remaining 11 matches for IPL but that was not enough for a person whom we all (probably all) supported during his racial-abuse allegation in Australia. After this incident I doubt whether I was right in showing my support to this guy who after the whole fracas stays calm and says to the media “It is a family matter please don’t interfere”. BCCI with all its money power had (definitely had) turned the Aussie incident in Bhajji’s favour and had set a very wrong precedent in doing so. After all the ‘we-are-still-brothers’ hugs and photo-ops I feel that 5 match ban was a very shoddy display by the BCCI… shoddier than the Bangalore and Hyderabad defeats. Harsha Bhogle had written a nice article in his Indian Express column, on this issue (will put up a link if I get it).
Initially when the IPL started off with a spectacular opening ceremony I checked the teams and was uninterested ‘coz it was hard to fight over national pride and root for a regional team especially when your favourite players are playing in different teams. But 2 days into IPL I was (and still am) rooting for Mumbai Indians. The basic concept of IPL (apart from the players and organizers drawing in huge moolah) is people rooting for their regional teams and not donning national colours for support. Such concept is more likeable by people akin to Raj Thakarey. Seems Yuvraj (captain of Mohali team) has not understood this when he complained that the Mumbai people were not supporting his team even when the team had our national team players. Aawww… I feel so sorry for this poor a$$hole. Especially when his team has advanced to semi-finals stage with the help of international players like Sangakarra, Pomersbach, Shaun Marsh etc. and he has not played well in any match so far. I feel happy that I never supported Mohali team (and I don’t like Preity Zinta as well); and even though Mumbai Indians didn’t reach the semi-finals stage I am glad I was rooting for a team which had players like Tendulkar, Jayasurya and Pollock who defied the T20-is-for-young-players tag and played well with all matches reaching a nail-biting finish. I should have supported Royal Challengers too for Katrina Kaif (latest Desktop Goddess) ;-), but then team owner Vijay Mallya, the beer baron, probably had all his players drunk before the matches and the team was defeated tamely on many occasions. Or else he did not get the Kingfisher models, we see on his calendar, out in the stadium to woo the other team players and distract them :D. One thing I don’t like about most of the teams is their dress colour… Jaipur team’s colours are the best I feel… easy on eyes.
IHL (Indian Hockey League) was a great attempt to revive the dying support for hockey and find budding players. IPL has outclassed IHL for mainly 2 reasons, loads of money involved and cricket being a more favourite sport than hockey. The national game might have gone for a toss but IPL is here to stay baby and it definitely is in. In case you might want to check the different sites of the teams...
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