Indian Paisa League - IPL unplugged

IPL is in its full glory right now with its underlying theme, Money, in full flow now. Anybody who thinks its all about cricket is a naive follower of the game. IPL has always been all about money, glamour, power,film-stars,business tycoons and politics. Cricket just happens to be a 'sideshow'.

The current ongoing battle between Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor has brought about this obvious secret into more open realm. Mr Modi has implied with his tweets that Ms Sunanda Pushker is a proxy for Mr Tharoor in this money-minting venture while Mr Tharoor and his supporters have heaped all sorts of allegations on Mr Modi whom they mainly accuse of trying to discourage their bid in favor of other lucrative offers.

This has clearly put on-field battles to sidelines which were already being discussed less compared to cheer-leaders and banter involving Yuvraj Singh, Sangakkara, Peterson, Shahrukh Khan and Priety Zinta. Already, there are confirmed reports of Punjab team being up for sale, their owners obviously being disillusioned with no-show from their team and constant scrutiny of media.

More and more of money is obviously acting as a distraction for all concerned and in-spite  being raised about politicians taking a back seat in this jamboree seeing the fate of Mr Tharoor, I personally believe that we should see more politicians jumping into this circus. What can attract our politicians more than public interest, money and power tussle.

Another positive to come out of this sorry spectacle is the long held demand of other sports' of cricket taking whole of the cake. I believe with all this ugly bickering and game's overkill, ultimately public will lose interest in game of cricket as a whole. "For what goes up, has to come down ",and here we have so many greedy interests working "day in and day out" towards this end.

I hope the general public too takes note of it and involve itself with IPL in no more than a passing interest. Paying huge amounts of money to buy expensive tickets or damaging their eyes by watching endless hours of meaningless cricket may not be of any worth. Its IPL unplugged.

Lost interest in IPL,

Sudhan.

2 Years in Amazon.com

So the fact is I have been at Amazon.com for 2 years. I don't know if celebrating is the right term for it, but, in certain ways, it surely feels like a celebration.

The question that came to my mind was: am I closer to my ideal that I was seeking when I joined? I feel like I don't quite know how to answer this question. In many ways, yes. I have learned a lot in the last 2 years, and I'm still learning. This is the inwards-looking view of it. The outwards looking one, the one that looks at the organization that I'm working for, the company, and the world that this company serves, do I think that I'm closer to what I was expecting to get?

Without entering information that I wouldn't feel very comfortable in writing, I think the answer is "maybe". There are some signs of improvement. However, I feel like there are many more signs of loss on my part, of decisions that what I had in mind will never get done. It could probably mean that I've become more experienced and can tell what is feasible and what isn't; but it could also mean that I'm losing the dare to dream. I'm becoming engrossed the the operations of life.

Anyway, 2 years... Quite a chunk of my life here.

Cheers,

Sudhan

Lalit Modi Yorker to ICC - IPL

Indian Premier League banged the world cricket like Big Bang. A lot of skeptics might have waved off 20-20 as nothing but a pretty diversion when the idea would have originated first. Now suddenly it all seems like a good deal.

Why not? If all the money spent already can't make it look pretty then what's the point! They could have very well used Pink Floyd's Money as the theme song. Someone tell Lalit Modi more is usually less while less is surely more!

IPL is nothing but a money-spinning racket. Of course, there is a new dimension that might be added and perhaps this would make the sport global. By global we don’t mean an Asian dominance, which the ICC hates. Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar can go all out to say this is the tonic that the gentleman’s game needed but come the next test series and the same geniuses would go to town praising the baggy blue Indian test cap.

When SONY forayed into cricket broadcast and introduced Mandira Bedi on a discussion panel, people like Harsha Bhogle cried foul. They had a problem with pre-match shows talking about things besides cricket. But when 20-20 originated the same Mr. Bhogle couldn’t help but regale us with 2000-words-a-minute talk while flashing his signature irritating hangar-in-my-mouth wide smile. Now suddenly the cheerleaders and dancin’ in the stands was fine.

The best thing about the IPL is the hype that it’s attracting. A day after the Olympic Torch thingy no news channel is interested in some after thought type discussion. All they can see, thanks to their blinders, is the darn IPL and its cheerleaders led opening ceremony. The sinking feeling I have is that the advertising, themes and logos and video unveiling could very well end up becoming the most memorable thing about the maiden IPL version.

One look at the ads and you might be mistaken that this isn’t some game of flashy cricket but some war. First of all who the hell came up with the Aaj Tak inspired ‘Karamyudh’ tag line? Secondly you squeeze in 50 plus matches in almost as many days in the months of March-April in India and expect the Yodhas to deliver! Little surprise then people like Dwayne Bravo Saying IPL is first interest than 'West indies'

The names these teams picked up me reek of the various hangovers we Indians seem to be proud of. Rajasthan is still Royal and so is Bangalore but that Royal is Vijay ‘Kingfisher’ Mallya liquor inspired. Mumbai won’t stop epitomizing its Indianess whereas Delhi, as usual, is stuck with the D word- Daredevils. Little surprise that Punjab would be anything but Kings and Chennai is…well…Kings too! We are going to get another two teams next year...!!! Totally 90 matches (***yawn***) going to be hell...!!

This complete lack of ingenuity reaches its peak when you see the videos featuring brand ambassadors. Mumbai video has UN Peacekeeping uniform clad soldiers dancing with Mumbai fare- dabbawallahs, auto drivers, fishermen, PYT’s and dudes in ties! The Knight Riders have escaped convicts, dancers and pehalwans biting (literally) the cricket ball. FYI- SRK’s son suggested Ball Busters instead of Knight Riders. Surprisingly even with SRK or Hrithik and their all round skills their videos weren’t half as good as the Chandigarh Lions. Better still Chennai and Hyderabad- they never got any videos made. I don’t blame them for how can you make one if you have someone like Krish Srikkanth as the brand ambassador!

The only thing missing in this whole tamasha is Mandira Bedi and her ‘I-Still-Don’t-Know- What-Am-I-Doing-Next-To-Tony-Greig’ expression. 


Cheers,
Sudhan