I am a cricket lover... not two thoughts about... one of the mad fans of cricket who doesn't mind watching a few advertisements during the break just so that I do not miss even a single ball played by Sachin if I am late coming back to the cricket channel.
Watching IPL, however, is another ball game. Yes, I am a cricket lover but there has to be a limit to what I can bear... here is the list of some tortures that I have to go through...
- Irritating Abhishek Bachhan in an even more irritating Ungli-Cricket Ad.
- Another addition by Set Max to ensure maximization of revenues - Advertisements between two balls. << these guys are making thousands of crores and if only they were a little bothered about the quality of cricket telecast, i don't think it will hit them badly to sacrifice a few crores of revenues coming in from those ads between balls>>
- Logo's : Just looking the Matches and I am bound to compare IPL with EPL or other popular and rich premier leagues around the world. my findings; while I could not see more than 2 logo's on footballers jersey, I could see an average of 4-5 logos if I see any of the cricketer in IPL... and this is just a cursory look around... then I see umpire's Hat... grass in the ground.. cheergirls clothes (of whatever they wear)... stumps... commentators clothes and accessories... ohh, the shoes, the boundary boards... this just reminds me of a movie called "Fir bhi Dil hai Hindustani" where they have brilliantly (?) shown a prisoner about to be hanged and you can see that every single thing right from the rope being used to hang him to his uniform to the people around are all wearing atleast an average of 7-10 logos.
- Contests :
- Karbon Kamaal Catch... huhh,
- DLF Maximum sixes... Ok
- Ungli cricket- need to mention twice for the irritation if causes.
- Meet the cheer-leaders - well this is not required... spend some x money on some thing (some SMS contest) and get a chance to meet the cheer girls... this clearly tells what IPL and (junta trying to meet them) think of them... i think they deserve a little more respect... they are cheer-girls and not bar girls...
- Toss ka boss.. what the hell..
- Vodafone some thing that gives the match ball signed by winning captain to one lucky winner - actually very lucky.. i would love to get that...
- Ohh... time for a Max mobile strategic time out.. fuck you...
- I am sure I have not even started and if you try to find out the contests and logos, you definitely will be lost and I will give all my savings to some one who can find one thing which is related to cricket and is not branded/commercialized
I was just wondering what these cricketers have to go through and I really respect them for putting such a fantastic show after being subjected to so many tortures before actually getting a chance to 'play'. Day 1 of IPL and I found some stupid guy and in 2 min I was sure my wife knows more about cricket than him... and ohh, I had seen him somewhere else as well.. and yes.. he is hosting another brilliantly conceived and executed 'reality' show which is rightly called 'emotional attyachar'. What the hell is this guy doing here... but hello.. there are 3 more such guys... one of them a proud winner of some other reality show and is hosting so many reality shows.. and now this grandest of the reality show... In one such interview some guy was talking to Kieron Pollard of West-Indies and that was his first day here in this tourney and he was caught totally unaware as we could see... he actually took a few minutes to understand what is happening and I am sure he must have felt the urge of kicking the interviewer a million times for the disgusting questions being asked.
And then those irritating celebrities. One another difference I spotted when I compared IPL to NBA league where I regularly find a lot of Hollywood stars. I have some reasons to believe that these guys actually know about the sport and go there for the love of the game (ofcourse they also make money out of it, and a lot of it). But when I see the likes of Katrina Kaif watching IPL I am a hundred percent sure that this girl doesn't know the spelling of cricket. And then a lot others who go there and are themselves branded completely in some team's jersey. Ohh c'mon... dont tell me they are there 'just' for the love of the game. Not that I dont see many celebrities there just to enjoy cricket but they are outnumbered by a lot of dumb-ass celebrities whose movies are about to release or who have been out of the 'circuit' for some time.
If I start talking about 'Extra Innings', I am sure not many people watch it. Just to confess, I do... I am such a fool that these organizers want entire India to be like... I watch extra innings coz i look for some more of cricket... Dont want to miss even a single adjective people used for Sachin, DADA or for that matter anyone. even tho i hate to listen to those losers talking about cricket and most of the time just repeating those cliches being used for more than a couple of decades and then they have this strange habit of assuming themselves to be the coolest people around... yo sunny bhai... yo ravi bhai... yo sachin bhai... 'dude, if you were not a son of this great cricketer of India, you might not have been able to even get the passes for watching IPL... and you might have spent your entire lifetime to get an autograph of these greats you so easily call yo ravi bhai'... so gimme us a break or rather go you take a break... you are more suited for 'Emotional Attyachar' UTV Bindass is right place for you.
Infact... talking about mismatches... i think Set-Max is the biggest mismatch. Would have loved to watch IPL on ESPN/Star sports...
No doubt its an amazing tournament and I am all mad about it and in-fact have missed my gym more times than I have attended after the start of this wonderful tournament. I am fully satisfied as I said I can endure anything just to watch Sachin score runs. However, the is coverage is pathetic, non-sense and Unwatchabe and at times I miss Cricket. How much I miss those ESPN/Star Sports and those days of pure Cricket with a little bit of ads to keep the sponsors happy -- just so that they can keep bringing much more of "cricket" for us. This also keeps me busy wondering how do these EPL guys make money... I don't see many advertisements there... no logo's in their beautiful green grass... even the ball is not branded and the jerseys/boots display not more than 2 logos... I don't mind them making money, in fact I am a firm believer of Capitalism... all I wish is a little more of 'Only-Cricket' and a little better coverage... and all they need to sacrifice is a few crores out of the thousands they are making...
btw... another jinx at work... i should switch this laptop off if I have to see Mumbai-Indians winning... focus... don't do anything else when Sachin is batting... 3 wickets have fallen since I started writing... My Bad... Back to cricket.. yo
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