Posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | By Gautam | In
Cricket is a religion in India. It’s a battered cliché. But as is the case with religions, they are hijacked by the pundits, the clergy and their ilk and are milked until it starts to bleed. Getting back to the religion that unites a rather divided India, cricket and IPL in particular proves just this point. IPL 1 was a success, no doubt about it. It proved comprehensively that the cricketing moolah emanates out of the Indian subcontinent. The fans had a good time, the players minted money, the franchisees and the sponsors had a roll and our very own BCCI filled up its coffers to overflowing levels apart from accomplishing world domination.
Fair enough. As an aspiring superpower we ought to have a heavy hand, at least in some aspects (no pun intended). But IPL 2 is a classic example of how ‘money is the worst servant’. Agreed that the BCCI was hard-pressed to move IPL out of India due to the democratic drama that will take place, but they should have at least thought of the millions of Indians who would watch the advertisement laden cricketing extravaganza. Point? Well barring the first two matches, all the other matches till date have been spoiled by the intervention of the rain gods. Duckworth Lewis in a T-20 match, pretty shameful. In this instalment of IPL, it has become a norm rather than an exception. Ladbrokes and other betting sites would be overflowing with bets wherein instead of betting for a team, people are betting on when will the rains start (due pun intended). The choice of venue couldn’t have been worse.
As if this was not enough, we now have ‘strategy breaks’ of 7.5 minutes in each innings. Brainchild of Mr. Modi, they are supposed to facilitate fabulous strategies. If a team is getting hit all around the park, take wickets. If you are not high on the run rate, start hitting the ball all over the place. It’s that simple in T-20. Pretty elementary Mr. Modi, wouldn’t you say!!!!
Sorry to disappoint the BCCI, but till now IPL 2 isn’t half as good as its predecessor. You guys are killing the golden goose. Or should I say ‘exploiting’. Heck, don’t be surprised if you wake up tomorrow only to find out that the goose is in the court of law charging the BCCI for ‘harassment’.
Fair enough. As an aspiring superpower we ought to have a heavy hand, at least in some aspects (no pun intended). But IPL 2 is a classic example of how ‘money is the worst servant’. Agreed that the BCCI was hard-pressed to move IPL out of India due to the democratic drama that will take place, but they should have at least thought of the millions of Indians who would watch the advertisement laden cricketing extravaganza. Point? Well barring the first two matches, all the other matches till date have been spoiled by the intervention of the rain gods. Duckworth Lewis in a T-20 match, pretty shameful. In this instalment of IPL, it has become a norm rather than an exception. Ladbrokes and other betting sites would be overflowing with bets wherein instead of betting for a team, people are betting on when will the rains start (due pun intended). The choice of venue couldn’t have been worse.
As if this was not enough, we now have ‘strategy breaks’ of 7.5 minutes in each innings. Brainchild of Mr. Modi, they are supposed to facilitate fabulous strategies. If a team is getting hit all around the park, take wickets. If you are not high on the run rate, start hitting the ball all over the place. It’s that simple in T-20. Pretty elementary Mr. Modi, wouldn’t you say!!!!
Sorry to disappoint the BCCI, but till now IPL 2 isn’t half as good as its predecessor. You guys are killing the golden goose. Or should I say ‘exploiting’. Heck, don’t be surprised if you wake up tomorrow only to find out that the goose is in the court of law charging the BCCI for ‘harassment’.
another facet to this is the fact that the IPL was shifted due to elections to a place where the rainy season is at its peak.
How about shifting the elections there or make all elections online?
Login and vote!!!
IPL ka IPL and sarkaar ki sarkaar..
who cares about the latter????
Keep posting buddy... there's something worth reading now :)
@ Maximus
a very noble idea indeed.....