IPL-manoranjan ka baap cricket ka sautela

Lalit Modi is a mighty pleased man... he should be.... having orchestrated the biggest grandest and most talked about jamboree in the world of crikentertainment, the IPL, he would be laughing away to the bank.
My two pence on what has become the single largest attention grabber in the last couple of years in India ( KBC was the previous one) is as follows.
Mixing Cricket and entertainment is a great idea, but when you plan to do something, do it the full way, instead of keeping the responsibility of getting stars into the audience for a mandatory cheer by the individual team owners, a better prospect could have been that IPL itself had contracted a number of our Bollywood stars and sirens to come and do in the stadiums..what they do best on screen... ENTERTAIN. Just imagine if IPL had roped in Bollywood and their poorer cousins like Tollywood, Mollywood (the list will encompass all alphabets) stars to star as supporting actors in each of the T20 matches!!! You would have a Venkatesh gyrating to his latest musical hit in Hyderabad, the sexy Sriya doing a mandatory hip shake in Chennai...probably inviting Rajni sir for the finals!!! I hope I am driving home this point.
The matches could have been a mix of a nice entertainment-cum-stage show-cum-a cricket match format (cricket purists... please wake up... to reality ...test matches was a generation ago, adrenaline pumped T20 is todays baby).
A nice format of a four-five hour extravaganza... with souvenirs, memorablia being sold during the matches, and more... would have been a value for money for an entry fee of 1k also...
Team rooting is a new concept for Indians who have only one villain to cheer against even in an Dubai Kenya match-Pakistan. Taking analogies from UK county matches or the football clubs, each of these clubs have been formed with a purpose;having a culture, a history... simply put ...A CHARACTER. Team support for an individual has been his association with a particular club either in terms of a profession, for example Arsenal Football Club began life when a group of workers at the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football team in late 1886.
The audience have a cause or bonding or association which borders almost on patriotism here.
The Indian audiences are now getting used to the similar club culture in cricket. It will take time for individual team member prejudices to be overcome by the team support ( imagine Bhajji and Symonds playing at the fag end of the batting order and lending support to each other to ensure a win!!!!!)
But the biggest quality and probably the best that IPL possesses has nothing to do with cricket- its all about money honey!!!!! With the huge amounts being doled out to individual players, IPL has managed to get an eclectic mix of players in each team. I love the thought of India hosting the IPL by buying players to play for regional locations.... it gives me a feel of the Raj days being turned around.
Towards the end, giving a Clairvoyant perspective of IPL probably 20 years from now....
IPL- A fortune 100 company with close to 100,000 employees across the globe.
CEO- Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar (politicians retire late or do they ever???)
Earnings-Last fiscals Profit After Tax stood at $1445 bn, shares trading at lifetime highs of $2000 per share on BSE (Dalal Street would have expanded to accomodate Wall Street)
IPL 2028- 400 matches over 5 months across 60 countries involving 50 teams from India having players nationed from around 90 countries of the world being played at some of the most amazing and breathtaking locations!!!
Star Attractions-

• The audio launch of Aryan Khan's first blockbuster -semi finals-Wembleys. The movie stars some of the biggest names from Hollywood.
• Dev Anand to have the muhurat shot of his next movie titled EVERGREEN-quarter finals-Switzerland
• Tatas to showcase their promised 10 Lakh rupee personal helicopter during the semi finals- White House Cricket Lawns-Washington
• Rakhi Sawant to be felicitated by a lifetime achievement award for all her pious acts of media interviews over the last two decades.-quarter finals match- Al Burj Terrace Cricket Stadium Dubai
• Anmol Mittal, son of Aditya Mittal to wed Sara Tendulkar-Finals- Wankhede Island Stadium Mumbai (all the 50 teams will be present to bless the newly wedded couple)

Well and what about the players and the matches..... that would be between all these Glitzy events!!!

This is not Cricket!!!! I heard somebody saying.....

But then who said that it ever was!!!!!!!

sriky