Chalti hai kya nau se barah…….
Salman Khan now wants to be part of the constellation of the IPL galaxy. Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan, too, want a slice of the heavily cherried IPL pie. .. Already, we have The Khan, the pretty Zinta, and the Ms ‘Goody two shoes’ Shilpa in the IPL orbit, which has bastardised one of the most stylish sports ever.
Welcome to the greatest Indian tamasha. Indian entertainment has gone up several notches above the “average” big-budget 70-mm multi-crore, multi-star extravaganzas. The silver screen makes way for the green turf for heroes in designer jerseys with the fattest pay-cheques after having auctioned themselves to flashy, over-sized sunglassed filmstars. The show goes on…but the venue has shifted. The line between the movie theatre’s box-office and the stadium counter is blur. Both these arenas are entertainment centres. Both have big money, stars, music and scripted performances.
I am no cricket expert. But I do understand the nuances of the game to the extent that I realize this version of popcorn cricket cannot hold a candle to the classical melody of the gentleman’s game. Cricket writer Omar Kureishi had once said, “Test match was like ballet dancing, and one-day international belly dancing.” Then what of Twenty-20… Rakhi Sawant’s item number?
I am not a purist or a snob to pooh-pooh the game’s synoptic version. It could probably be the only way to attract the young, whose attention span can take in only the game’s dwarfed version. How many have the time or patience for the five-day affair? But, it could have remained just a dwarfed version. But what we now have is a foray into the world of brazen greed. The auction system has corporatised these players with fancy price tags. And, if this was not enough, the endorsements take care of the gaps in their bank passbooks.
Thank you, Lalit Modi, for making cricket a great business option for millionaires to multiply their millions. Thank you for pulling a fast one on these gullible spectators, who are taken for a ride for three hours without their knowledge. At least, the movies do not feign sincerity. The movies are here to con us, and they try to do it well. But the people pay to watch the IPL tamasha, wearing their city allegiance on their sleeves. And, the players go laughing and rolling all the way to bank, hoodwinking the naïve sport-lovers. They could watch the unpretentious Karan Johar/Yash Chopra film instead, which anyway has a high celeb quotient. Why opt for the IPL? Is it because of the hot cabaret numbers, oops... dances by cheer leaders for every big hit or miss? Is it because of the loudspeakers blaring songs of the star, whose team takes to the field?
Whatever it is….Chalti hai kya nau se baraah?
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Ronaldo was bought by Real for about 70M Pounds. Kaka was not far off at around 60M Pounds. You have seen nothing yet.
ReplyDeleteIn the IPL the whole team costs about $6M.
These are businesses and private at that. No tax payer money in involved.
You have seen nothing yet. Keep watching.
Finally we disagree! :) :p
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if the spectators can be called naive. Do they have anything to lose? I don't think so. The guy playing test cricket is a millionaire anyway, so are they fooled by watching Test cricket? Am not a purist, but after so many months of T20 the Ashes brought some much needed Test cricket action. But at the same time, T20 got into the 2-3 hrs limited fun that football enjoyed. You can gather around for an evening with some friends and have a fun night without paying anything(or maybe only for alcohol if you are into it). The culture exists in Europe with football and the US with American Football or any of their games for that matter. And in India, T20 and majorly only IPL made it happen. Yes, it is a huge gamble and maybe Lalit Modi & Co. are pulling a fast one on us, but it is amazing entertaining with nothing to lose. Why don't we just sit back and have some...FUN!?
Gradwolf - Finally, we disagree too :)
ReplyDeleteThis McDonalds version of cricket is entertainment for masses - no debating that; but the chastity of the sport is maligned with money. Some players playing in IPL, including our captain Dhoni, complained of injuries before ODI and test match fixtures. They would not have chanced injuring themselves had it been a Ranji outing instead. The downpour of money has clearly shifted priorities of cricketers.
The difference between English Premier league and IPL is aplenty owing to the fact that the rules of football haven't been altered in EPL as cricket has almost taken a different avatar in the IPL version. Change is not a problem but this over domination of batsmen is. Extremely poor quality shots like 'purposely' edging the ball over slips just to get a boundary is almost a blasphemy for good batsmanship. I really don't think encouraging mediocrity of this sort is good for the sport. Why do we really need to baseballise this wonderful technical and classy sport? Why do we need to bow down to the demands of the impatient youth and reduce the once pristine sport to a popcorn video?
The issue is not the big money. It is the suicide of cricket with Bollywood overdose and rape of aesthetics. Football clubs have their share of million-, even billion-dollar deals. But as Rajendran says the rules are the same. The problem is not with such deals. Cricket can go for fatter deals.
ReplyDeleteThe game, by itself, has high entertainment quotient. It need not get throttled by deafening music in stadium and item numbers by cheer leaders.
Ok, on that note, yes, I got to agree. The deafening music and cheerleaders etc. make it look quite ugly and I definitely don't want that even if it is T20. It was one of the reasons I warmed up to IPL quite slowly as I found the whole marketing and publicity gimmick quite crass.
ReplyDelete