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Cricket Overdose
There has been an overdose of Cricket since the last couple of months and I am growing sick of it. Quite a bold statement for an Indian. The types that can get you loads of hate mails and even get you in the wrong side of a PIL. But what the heck, this way I might get a little publicity. After all, one thing that I’ve learn during my stint at the YMCA learning "Ad and Marketing" that no publicity is bad publicity (Somebody tell Shiney Ahuja about it)
Coming back to the issue at hand – Cricket – let me clarify that I am not a Cricket hater. Many of us from the North Eastern part of the country prefer football to cricket. But I grew up in a community where boys play football during summer and cricket during the winter. The idea of an India-Pakistan match is as interesting to me as anyone else in the country. Even then, the overdose of cricket, its blatant commercialism in the name of “popularizing the game” have made me cringe.
Those who followed the IPL matches were subjected to 10 minutes of uninterrupted TV commercial in the name of Strategic Breaks, camera following Mr. Lalit Modi signing autographs and some member of the audience reading (rather pretending to read) the T20 cricket magazine while commentators giving hint after hint to "go buy it while it is still at the stands." To top it all, we have Mandira Bedi who just manages to scream and make weird faces to be more exciting and bring some oomph (humph?!). I think it is lame, irritating and embarrassing more often than not. If things remain such, I might be on my way to confirm to the stereotype that North Easterners do not like cricket.
Despite all the cribs I continue to watch the World T20 championship and to be honest, I am quite happy with the results so far. Here’s why:
The immediate effect of it is pull out of the stupid ad campaign “Yeh cup kahin nehin jayega” (This cup will not go anywhere)…and it’s a great relief. The ouster also showed the technical weakness of the Indian batsmen, toothless pace attack (apart from a few exceptions). When faced with real opponents like West Indies, England and South Africa, the Indian team was quickly put to their place. Too much cricket and too much money – serves us Indians right for worshiping a bunch of technically challenged players who can flourish only on small grounds with a flat pitches.
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Coming back to the issue at hand – Cricket – let me clarify that I am not a Cricket hater. Many of us from the North Eastern part of the country prefer football to cricket. But I grew up in a community where boys play football during summer and cricket during the winter. The idea of an India-Pakistan match is as interesting to me as anyone else in the country. Even then, the overdose of cricket, its blatant commercialism in the name of “popularizing the game” have made me cringe.
Those who followed the IPL matches were subjected to 10 minutes of uninterrupted TV commercial in the name of Strategic Breaks, camera following Mr. Lalit Modi signing autographs and some member of the audience reading (rather pretending to read) the T20 cricket magazine while commentators giving hint after hint to "go buy it while it is still at the stands." To top it all, we have Mandira Bedi who just manages to scream and make weird faces to be more exciting and bring some oomph (humph?!). I think it is lame, irritating and embarrassing more often than not. If things remain such, I might be on my way to confirm to the stereotype that North Easterners do not like cricket.
Despite all the cribs I continue to watch the World T20 championship and to be honest, I am quite happy with the results so far. Here’s why:
Australia going out of the tournament from the first round
I have nothing personal against the Aussies nor the above comment is a backlash for all the racial attacks on Indian students in Australia. A dialogue from the movie Dark Knight seem to sum up the reason quite well. “You die a hero or live long enough to be the villain.” Australia has been the number one cricket team for many many years and I was starting to get sick of it.India being knocked out of the tournament
The immediate effect of it is pull out of the stupid ad campaign “Yeh cup kahin nehin jayega” (This cup will not go anywhere)…and it’s a great relief. The ouster also showed the technical weakness of the Indian batsmen, toothless pace attack (apart from a few exceptions). When faced with real opponents like West Indies, England and South Africa, the Indian team was quickly put to their place. Too much cricket and too much money – serves us Indians right for worshiping a bunch of technically challenged players who can flourish only on small grounds with a flat pitches.South Africa losing in the Semis
Boy! Don’t we love it when someone confirms to whatever “tag” they are given? South Africa managed to keep their choker tag intact after losing in the semi finals of yet another major tournament. Thank God I am not a South African or I’d have felt even worse.Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the finals
Yes, being an Asian, I supported these two teams after the MIGHTY (mind the bold and italics) Indian team lost. Whoever wins the title, I hope the title of World T20 Champions will bring some happiness to the two countries torn apart from war and killings.
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