IPL brought the whole nation to frenzy if not most cricket loving nations. It had bolstered the TV channels TRP ratings, invented a new channel for marketing firms, created a heavenly avenue for world cricketers including Indian cricketers to earn gold playing for just a few matches and more importantly great entertainment format for the mad cricket loving nation challenging the great Indian movies n soaps….
WHY DID IPL HAPPEN….
The Indian cricket team and the BCCI were reeling under the pressure from immense public criticism and also the Parliament for the poorest of poor display of cricket by the Indian team in the Caribbean World Cup 2007. Cricket frenzy fans mobbed and pelted stones at Dhoni’s house, Dravid’s house and Zaheer’s food restaurant in Pune. There was hue and cry about the Indian performance and there was every reason for a normal average Indian cricket fan to be terribly upset and imagine the trauma a diehard cricket had gone through. It lead to a discussion in the Parliament by our honorable parliamentarians (atleast there were no walkouts this time around)….scene cut change….
The original Indian television Czar Subhash Chandra of Zee TV had a stunning idea and proposed Indian Cricket League with exorbitant prize money for the winners. ICL as told by Subhash Chandra was born out of love for cricket and for betterment of the sport in the Indian society. But the whole world knows the open secret that ICL was born because ZEE Sports could not win any bid for cricket matches telecast in India and abroad and ZEE Sports would have had nothing to do cricket telecast in this country where cricket is a religion. The all time greatest Indian all rounder Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev didn’t lose an opportunity to support the project as he always been a rebel against BCCI during and after his playing days. Huge media hype supported the ICL, cricketers around the world gave it a thought, every average Indian cricket fan was inquisitive to know about the league, more than anyone the average Indian domestic player was happy not only to see a platform for the world to take notice of their talent but also the money involved in it as it would forever secure their life. Cricketing legends Brain Lara, Shane Warne, Inzamam Ul Haq, Chris Cairns and other good current players like Mohammed Yousuf embraced the league format even though Warne and Yousuf backtracked later. All this while BCCI was crying foul calling and branding ICL as a rebel league and took no time in not only banning the league but also muscling the ICC to do the same…..scene cut change….
ICC 20-20 World Cup in South Africa, a no expectation young team without the SRS (Sachin, Rahul, Saurav) under the new captaincy of Dhoni represented India in the world cup after a great win in the Test series in England and also a spirited performance in the one day matches where the seniors played a very big role. Every one believed for sure that the team would stand no chance in the new 20-20 format as team never played the format nor the BCCI was encouraging of the format and initially BCCI didn’t want send an Indian contingent for the event. Everybody knows history created by the Indian team winning the 20-20 World Cup emphatically and in the process destroying the original 20-20 inventors England, taming the South Africans in their own den, demolishing the mighty Aussies on their way to the finals and culminating by beating their arch rivals Pakistan twice once in the league stage and again in the finals. The nation went frenzy again; the TRP ratings for the matches hit the zenith for Star Sports and it made gold. The BCCI didn’t lose the ICC given opportunity and acted promptly by given the team a heroes welcome, with State governments fighting each other to share the glory by announcing rewards for the players belonging to their state and then the icing on the cake by announcing Indian Premiere League (IPL)….scene cut change….
IPL was born, business tycoons, liquor kingfishers, bollywood badshahs, tinsel town beauties, media barons everyone wanted their share of piece and associations with the IPL. Teams were bid for never heard prices peaking better than the Mt Everest. Bidding for players took place for astounding numbers with our Indian Captain taking the most of the glory. The critics wrote off the league as they believed cricket lovers would never equate these matches between cities to any international match and the critics had a reason with the very average success of the ICL even though ICL had only retired and mostly unknown players. But, IPL didn’t relent, the branding of each city team started taking off, the media extensively covered anything and everything associated with IPL, ads were out bringing irresistible curiosity among the cricket fans….scene cut change….
IPL CREATED HISTORY
The day had come, the format and the league was welcomed by every Indian cricket lover with both hands. Sony Max minted money selling their ads spots hotter than the hottest cakes. IPL brought new cricket lovers to embrace (mostly the fairer sex) cricket like never before, most of the husbands loved to see their wives give up their regular saas bahu serial soaps for the IPL. Bollywood and Indian cinema as a whole witnessed steep drop in their collections during the SUMMER which is supposed to be their most fruitful season of the whole year, movie releases were postponed to after the IPL finals.
Cricket played in IPL was of the highest order, even though not all teams played to their potential. It threw new challenges for players and brought the best out of the most unsought or unsung players and sprouted new heroes during the course of the league. The league revived many cricketing careers. Most of all, IPL matches kept the whole nation occupied by creating great cricketing rivalry between traditional Indian cities and made everyone happy.
The world witnessed and enjoyed the IPL extravaganza. IPL success helps ICC to take and market the sport in this format to other sporting nations thereby increasing the sport's presence world over.
Also, IPL helped BCCI to exercise its power and control over CRICKET completely world over even though not sabotaging the ICC directly....the English and the Aussies are fuming over the power generated by BCCI through IPL....
All said n done....IPL was the biggest bonanza for everyone...
In pure BOX OFFICE terms….we can only name this IPL as ALL TIME BIGGEST INDIAN BLOCKBUSTER….
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
English Theatre
I have never ever watched English plays. During my school n college, I had never heard any of my friends speak or discuss theatre as it was not anybody's interest even though Chennai had always been very active in English Theatre. I had this passion in me to be associated with acting, dancing etc. It had remained to be a dream and it eluded me for a long time. I didnt know anybody who was associated with Theatre r movies so naturally I didnt have the courage to take acting as a career and had to take a different career path in life. After MBA, getting placed in TCS made me very happy, but somewhere down inside there was still some hope.
One fine day, I was browsing about English Theatre and I came across a website which had all information about Theatre. I placed a query there and was more than happy to get a reply with the phone number. I spoke to the person who invited me for a workshop where I had to show some of my skills. I was appreciated but was told that I was just too raw. I attented few workshops and I was getting better and better, then came the very good news that I was selected for the play to be premiered on March 27th.
In the midst of all these happiness, I was getting too busy with work at office, given more responsibility and work. Naturally being in an IT company, staying up late in office is an untold norm and everybody is expecting you to stay long. But I had to attend the training workshops of the play most of the week. Never was a moment where I felt like giving up theatre because of the pressure at office, rather it made me more determined and I could manage my time better.
What do I say about the workshops, I got to meet so many different people from different walks of life making the whole experience wonderful. I understood one of the morals of life that "There is no one best way to do things". There were scenes during pratice which came out really well but the director was never happy rather was suggesting to try different things to discover unknown paths. The whole experience was fun.
And then the day arrived.....make up, dress rehearsal and for a moment I felt like I was breaking down with tension as I was told that the play we were staging was first of its kind. So to be part of something very inventive on stage for the first time made me feel great, at the same time more tensed. And then the moment arrived....my turn came....and it happened and happened like a dream......performing in front a decent crowd was a dream come true. I felt like a star for those moments when the crowd reacted with loud claps and laughter for most of my lines in the play. Everything went right about my performance, I was elated when my co-artists and the director praised my performace and more than all the reaction from the crowd made me go berserk inside. Flashed in all newspapers the next day, I became a kinda celebrity in my office when most of my project mates caught me on paper. I had kept it a secret in office but all in vain. The paper clipping was put on the notice board spread and the news spread like fire. Everybody walked upto me congratulating me. I was on cloud nine for few days after the play.
I thank everybody associated with the play. It has given me some of the most cherished moments in life. I love Theatre and would continue to be associated with it. I just want to discover myself in this journey.
One fine day, I was browsing about English Theatre and I came across a website which had all information about Theatre. I placed a query there and was more than happy to get a reply with the phone number. I spoke to the person who invited me for a workshop where I had to show some of my skills. I was appreciated but was told that I was just too raw. I attented few workshops and I was getting better and better, then came the very good news that I was selected for the play to be premiered on March 27th.
In the midst of all these happiness, I was getting too busy with work at office, given more responsibility and work. Naturally being in an IT company, staying up late in office is an untold norm and everybody is expecting you to stay long. But I had to attend the training workshops of the play most of the week. Never was a moment where I felt like giving up theatre because of the pressure at office, rather it made me more determined and I could manage my time better.
What do I say about the workshops, I got to meet so many different people from different walks of life making the whole experience wonderful. I understood one of the morals of life that "There is no one best way to do things". There were scenes during pratice which came out really well but the director was never happy rather was suggesting to try different things to discover unknown paths. The whole experience was fun.
And then the day arrived.....make up, dress rehearsal and for a moment I felt like I was breaking down with tension as I was told that the play we were staging was first of its kind. So to be part of something very inventive on stage for the first time made me feel great, at the same time more tensed. And then the moment arrived....my turn came....and it happened and happened like a dream......performing in front a decent crowd was a dream come true. I felt like a star for those moments when the crowd reacted with loud claps and laughter for most of my lines in the play. Everything went right about my performance, I was elated when my co-artists and the director praised my performace and more than all the reaction from the crowd made me go berserk inside. Flashed in all newspapers the next day, I became a kinda celebrity in my office when most of my project mates caught me on paper. I had kept it a secret in office but all in vain. The paper clipping was put on the notice board spread and the news spread like fire. Everybody walked upto me congratulating me. I was on cloud nine for few days after the play.
I thank everybody associated with the play. It has given me some of the most cherished moments in life. I love Theatre and would continue to be associated with it. I just want to discover myself in this journey.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
India-Australia Series 2007-08
We have witnessed one of the most interesting phases of cricket if not most turbulent as well. The current series between India and Australia is more about clashes between personality rather than the cricketing skills and later became a clash between the cricketing boards and ICC. Even though excellent cricket has been played over past 8 weeks both by India and Australia, it had been completely marred by controversies.
IDEALLY SYDNEY TEST RESULT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANNULLED AND DECLARED VOID BECAUSE OF THE OBVIOUS ON-FIELD BLUNDERS CAUSED BY UMPIRING DECISIONS AND DISGRACEFUL APPEALING CLAIMING WRONG CATCHES.
But we understand this is not a perfect world and have to live with the result. If everthing would have been scripted the correct way (or fair way) interms of umpiring etc. India would have wrapped up the match on the 4th day winning the Sydney test convincingly. Needless to say that we could have performed better in the last hour of the match to have avoided the defeat even in these utmost turbulent conditions.
All this fuss is because of the use of "SLEDGING" in cricket. It is needless to say that sledging is a mind game deployed by the Australians to mentally upset and provoke the opposition by calling them names etc. But when they get the same dose of what they do, they are not ready accept it with sportsmanship. I dont understand how can the Australian cricketers (generally white colored cricketers) get away without any fine or reprimand for provoking opponents. The primary reason is because the ICC officials like the Match Referees and Match Umpires have always been biased towards the Australians (generally white colored cricketers), as result dont punish them for their rather ugly, disgusting, disgraceful behaviour on field and not because of the Australians' mastery of sledging as wrongly believed by many.
How can an Indian (Virender Shewag) can get banned for a match for appealing constantly but two Australians (Michael Clark & Andrew Symonds) can get away by wrongly appealing and claiming a catch. Indians would be termed racist (Harbhajan) for calling monkey and fined (Ishant) for gestures at opponents but Australians would not fined or reprimanded for provoking opponents (on 2 occasions Symonds), for using terms like bastards (Hogg), obnoxious little weed (Hayden)etc.
In the midst of all these contraversies we have had little to enjoy the quality of the cricket played not only marred by on-field activities but also off-field activities. How can a 38 yr old python like figure (Hayden) ask a 19 yr old ostrich like figure (Ishant) to join in a ring to fight out rather than fighting it on a cricket field. Does this really portray the insecurity that the Australians are feeling about losing their invincible title. I accept that there is a long way to go for any team to just dethrone the Australians from the NO:1 title, but still, I believe that in the recent past they have been threatened by only one team and that is INDIA.
India is not far away from gaining the NO:1 title with young legs trying to play competitive not only on cricketing terms but also in giving back the opposition its own medicine. The trouble with the Indian cricketers is that they get easily disturbed and distracted by the unrelenting media glare, instant fame and money. They need to have good head on shoulders to overcome the unwanted hype created by the media with a few match successes. Indian players have to prove their worth by succeeding over a longer peroid through meticulous training in cricketing skills, physical fitness and foremost of all is play with utmost pride and committment for the nation.
A billion hearts' skips their beat when we lose a match and a billion hearts rejoices when we win a match.
I am waiting for the current tri-series final with utmost enthusiam. I'm hoping that Indians give a tough fight and make Australians run, scramble for their money.
If INDIA manage to win the finals, it would be history created and mark of the new beginning of the SUPER POWER CRICKETING NATION
IDEALLY SYDNEY TEST RESULT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANNULLED AND DECLARED VOID BECAUSE OF THE OBVIOUS ON-FIELD BLUNDERS CAUSED BY UMPIRING DECISIONS AND DISGRACEFUL APPEALING CLAIMING WRONG CATCHES.
But we understand this is not a perfect world and have to live with the result. If everthing would have been scripted the correct way (or fair way) interms of umpiring etc. India would have wrapped up the match on the 4th day winning the Sydney test convincingly. Needless to say that we could have performed better in the last hour of the match to have avoided the defeat even in these utmost turbulent conditions.
All this fuss is because of the use of "SLEDGING" in cricket. It is needless to say that sledging is a mind game deployed by the Australians to mentally upset and provoke the opposition by calling them names etc. But when they get the same dose of what they do, they are not ready accept it with sportsmanship. I dont understand how can the Australian cricketers (generally white colored cricketers) get away without any fine or reprimand for provoking opponents. The primary reason is because the ICC officials like the Match Referees and Match Umpires have always been biased towards the Australians (generally white colored cricketers), as result dont punish them for their rather ugly, disgusting, disgraceful behaviour on field and not because of the Australians' mastery of sledging as wrongly believed by many.
How can an Indian (Virender Shewag) can get banned for a match for appealing constantly but two Australians (Michael Clark & Andrew Symonds) can get away by wrongly appealing and claiming a catch. Indians would be termed racist (Harbhajan) for calling monkey and fined (Ishant) for gestures at opponents but Australians would not fined or reprimanded for provoking opponents (on 2 occasions Symonds), for using terms like bastards (Hogg), obnoxious little weed (Hayden)etc.
In the midst of all these contraversies we have had little to enjoy the quality of the cricket played not only marred by on-field activities but also off-field activities. How can a 38 yr old python like figure (Hayden) ask a 19 yr old ostrich like figure (Ishant) to join in a ring to fight out rather than fighting it on a cricket field. Does this really portray the insecurity that the Australians are feeling about losing their invincible title. I accept that there is a long way to go for any team to just dethrone the Australians from the NO:1 title, but still, I believe that in the recent past they have been threatened by only one team and that is INDIA.
India is not far away from gaining the NO:1 title with young legs trying to play competitive not only on cricketing terms but also in giving back the opposition its own medicine. The trouble with the Indian cricketers is that they get easily disturbed and distracted by the unrelenting media glare, instant fame and money. They need to have good head on shoulders to overcome the unwanted hype created by the media with a few match successes. Indian players have to prove their worth by succeeding over a longer peroid through meticulous training in cricketing skills, physical fitness and foremost of all is play with utmost pride and committment for the nation.
A billion hearts' skips their beat when we lose a match and a billion hearts rejoices when we win a match.
I am waiting for the current tri-series final with utmost enthusiam. I'm hoping that Indians give a tough fight and make Australians run, scramble for their money.
If INDIA manage to win the finals, it would be history created and mark of the new beginning of the SUPER POWER CRICKETING NATION
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