IPL : When Sport becomes a product

In the past week, IPL has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. You know you are in trouble when sport, which usually takes the last few pages in a newspaper makes it to the front page ! I am penning down a few ideas of my own, as well as genuine concerns raised on various newspapers in the past week.

* Lalit Modi has got a wrap on his knuckles and it is time for celebration for the genuine lovers of cricket. He fell into his own trap. Lalit Modi has always been the giant elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Drunk and drenched in power, he has fast risen to be the next powerful person to Sonia Gandhi ( yeah we can always forget Manmohan ji, he is , at best an “existing” PM ) in India.

* I honestly believe he is being praised for a lot of things for which he does not deserve credit. First and foremost, though he can claim the IPL to be his baby, T20 for heaven’s sake was not his invention ! It was invented by suave Englishmen who wanted to do something drastic because their national game (Cricket), was losing its popularity to football (read EPL). T20 was born in England in 2005. The IPL is nothing but a convenient conglomeration of the best points from EPL, T20, NFL (franchises, home away concept) etc. So all Modi has done is smart repackaging ! Yes, Modi has been a successful business man, as he has taken IPL accross the world, but still, he has not done anything new. Why should I not believe that an honest committee of a couple of knowledgeable test cricketers and the best brains from IIM’s in India would have scaled greater heights than Modi ? And lets digest the fact that IPL is successful because of the cricketers and not the “behind the stage” players . Tough Luck, Mr Modi

* The Western World might praise Modi in the open and feel grumpy behind his back but both are unnecessary. The West must realise that Modi is no Messiah and he has not supplied Cricket with much needed oxgen or revolutionised the sport . India is the biggest market for the sport and anybody with basic business acumen, would have succeeded nine times out of ten in a similar venture. Yes, there can not be another private cricket event as big as the IPL; but that is not because of Modi, it is because of the vast Indian market.

* You can have all the glamour, all the marketing, millions of Modis but the event will never succeed without the cricketers. If they attempt to push that to the back burner, then the circus will soon wind up. The biggest positive has been the recognition that some of the relatively unkown cricketers have received. Today along with Saas- Bahu serials,bollywood, politics,Sachin,Dhoni and others; a Harmeet Singh, a Suman, a Saurabh Tiwary, a Rayudu, a Sathish, a Kamran Khan is also being discussed !

* T 20 has been a good avenue for taking the game to virgin markets. But it should be used as a window for projecting the beauty of test matches, which is the sport’s pinnacle. Yes, the IPL has taken the sport to girls, house wifes even, weaning them away from the mega serials; but ladies please understand that what you are watching is not REAL CRICKET. Ask any true cricket lover and he will tell you. All these big boundary hits on cement like wickets can not match the heavenly bliss of a fiery spell from a fast bowler, or a sublime innings from a batsman hounded by 5 close in catchers and wily spinners, or a tensely fought draw during the final hours of the fifth day of a test match. THAT IS CRICKET

* Cricket is a beautiful game/ sport and I have a problem when these guys try to turn it into a product. If cricket was a baby, Modi has shamelessly dissected its each and every tender part and sold them separately.
Mr Modi, kindly understand that when a ball crosses the boundary ropes without bouncing inside the field of play, it is called a S-I-X or a S-I-X-E-R; Yeah Mr. Modi, we appreciate your genuine concerns about kids watching the programme and the need for people to get the pronunciation and spelling right , but still you should not rename it to a “DLF Maximum”. We are sick and tired of commentators arguing whether it was a “Karbonn Kamaal Catch” or a “City Moment of Success”. Yes you have continuously banged into our living rooms and even a three year old knows what brand DLF, Citi or Karbonn stands for. Mission accomplished. Now will you please remove these titles accompanying cricketing moments ? Knowing Mr. Modi, he will sell it to other brands next year. it could be a “State Moment of Success “, “Graphite Kamaal Catch” or whatever and the day when a commentator is going to be fired for failing to get over the hangover of a previous brand is not far away. And I switching on the TV because I want to see Sachin bat,Kumble bowl, Saurav lead his team and I could not care less to see Modi on screen literally every alternate over, sitting on a sofa lounge texting and tweeting his way to glory, or discussing intensely with the team owners( I am sure its not cricket ) It is sad to see commentators shamelessly selling themselves to the money crazy bureaucrats. And we are not talking about some A, B or C. These are legends of the game like Sunil Gavaskar, Geoffrey Dujon, Ravi Shastri ( no ;Arun Lal, Sivaramakrishnan, Manjrekar do not find a place here )

* The cheerleaders are another major distraction (Not that I am complaining though ). Again it is a shameless lift by Mr Modi from the T20 world cup held in South Africa and it is not IPL’s brain child. Anybody who has visited the stadiums will vouch that the mere presence of players is enough to send the crowd into a tizzy. Do I need a Sachin or Anil Kumble to grin at me when I go to a movie to rave about Nayanthara, Shriya or Tamanna ? Similarly, I do not need women in biniki skirts and tight tees to gyrate on screen when I am busy counting the number of runs for Sachin’s fifty or the number of runs given by Kumble in that over. As simple as that. The cheerleaders might be necessary in places like UK or South Africa to bring in the crowd and keep them excited. But there, cricketers are mere mortals;in India, they are demi gods and they do not need to piggy back on unknown women from foreign lands to bring in the crowds. And anyone watching the representation among the cheerleaders can easily make out that there is tacit racism involved in the selection. Somehow , we Indians have a thing for fair skin

* The most blatant abuse of viewership time was the strategic time out from second edition of IPL 2. The yawning 7 1/2 minute interview at the end of tenth over of each innings saw a plethora of advertisements flooding the TV screens, conveniently sold to a sponsor. Lalit Modi would not even listen to the “The God of Cricket” Sachin’s complaints that the time outs were hampering the momentum of the game. Sorry Sachin, you might know a thing or two about Cricket, but this is IPL and Modi is the boss ! He arrogantly refused to scrap it because it was sold to a sponsor for the entire tournament’s length and scrapping it would result in heavy monetary losses. Who cares about the cricket anyway? And this year , Modi, being the business man that he is has repackaged the intervals into two slots of 2.5 minutes each and sold it to Maxx Mobile. Mr Modi, if you had ever played cricket at a decent level, you would have known that cricketers know how to discuss strategies within the alloted time, and we do not need your extra time outs. Haven’t you ever seen the 12th man running in with a pair of gloves to the batsmen in the middle whenever the dressing room needs to convey a message ? Or have you not seen the substitute whispering into a fast bowler’s ear at fine leg/third man when he is in the middle of a spell? Mr Modi , please do not flatter yourself

* The Ravi Jadeja ban for IPL 3 was an eye opener. I am not trying to justify Jadeja’s acts but once again, we saw blatant abuse of power to curb the player’s earning capabilities. Jadeja is one of the most promising players coming up, and if he felt he was worth more than the 40 lakhs that he was being paid, and wanted to negotiate a better deal, in what way is he committing a crime ? Who is Mr. Modi , to fix rules, that Jadeja can hope for an increase only after three years ? The irony is that they are paying around 3.5 crores for Ishant Sharma who is warming the benches and his bottom this season ! Mr Modi, if you conveniently hide under the garb of “trying to protect a teenager’s career and helping him find the right way to handle money” ( as you clain in those interviews to the media), then what about the IPL after night parties which all cricketers have to compulsorily attend ? All I can see in those photos is drinks, more drinks, women and more women ? So is that the right way to look after young cricketers At the same time, one can not deny the fact that Jadeja was attempting to be greedy, and this will be the trend in the years to come, with the amount of money floating around. Back in 1999/2000 when we were playing representative cricket for Tamil Nadu juniors, ( R Ashwin, the current Chennai Super Kings sensation and me were room mates then ), our daily wages were a mere 75 rupees ! From that, we spent around 60 rs towards food and we could barely save 15 rs per day from our match fees. Today , i heard the present Tamil Nadu juniors receive anywhere between 2500 – 3000 Rs per day ! Now that is insane, what do you expect a 14 year old to do with that sort of money !

* I also read that all benefits including tax are being extended to the IPL moghuls. We are talking about Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya and all those money drunk people who run the show. Why the hell do we need to extend tax sops to these billionaires when my parents and your parents sincerely file their return for the peanuts that they earn ? And Mr. Powar who is from Maharashtra says he is helpless with regards to the escalating prices of food items. Mr Powar, with these 200 odd crores ( from tax alone) , could you not do something about the acute price increase and power shortage. I should not be doing the thinking when you are the Union Minister. And this is yet another incident that proves that we Indians perenially resign to the fact that we are a poor country,when ironically, we are represented significantly by billionaires in Forbes list each year. Thalaivar (Rajni) classically puts it in Sivaji in a two liner ( India ezhai naadu illa , irukara panam ellam panakaaranga kitteye thangi irukku.. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer)

* We can’t thank Tharoor and Modi enough. You guys rock man seriously. Thanks for putting the menace into the limelight. Here was a union minister who pretended that all that he was trying to do was bring cricket to Kochi, and alas ! he conveniently attempts to pocket a cool 70 crores through his “close friend ” (When will people stop misusing the word “friendship” ?). Mr Modi is no saint either, he, through his relatives has stakes in Kolkata, Rajasthan and Punjab. Still, I do not think it was a wise decision on the part of the Kochi owners to have opted for the city in first place. Kerala, is a beautiful place, it is my favourite “go-to” place in India, it is a place I would take my wife for pleasant moments after marriage, but still it has a long way to go before it becomes an IPL power centre. The local talent is limited and already we have 3 power centres in close vicinity ( Chennai, Banglore and Hyderabad), there is no proper cricket stadium at present, and the franchises would have been better served in chosing Ahmedabad. But just have a look at the number of politicians running the game these days. Sharad Powar ( president elect ICC). Rajiv Shukla (BCCI- Congress), Farooq Abdullah ( union minister and president Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association). Arun Jaitley – former union minister, and president Delhi District Cricket Association, Narendra Modi – CM Gujarat and president Gujarat Cricket Association. Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Union Minister and Cheif Patron Bihar CA. There are a few more as well. We already can’t stand these individuals in politics and do we need them in cricket too ?

* On a concluding note, I am really happy for my childhood buddy Ashwin Ravi who has been consistently delivering for the Chennai Super Kings. We have known each other since he was in 4th standard. We played together, went to the same school, same college, same clubs and I have seen from close quarters the sacrifices made and the time and energy devoted by his father ( Ravi uncle) and Chithra Aunty. It was so nice of Ashwin to mention his dad when he received the Man of the match award. They both truly deserve the success. Ravi Uncle would accompany Ashwin to every cricket match, constantly encourage our team,(he took special interest in my career too), he was our team manager on our tours to Bangalore and when it came to studies he would patiently gather all the school notes for him so that Ashwin could prepare when not playing cricket. I am sure that family deserves every success that has come their way.. All the best da machi..!