Once upon a time termed as 'the Gentleman's Game', Cricket has now being reduced to show-business, all thanks to the phenomena called IPL. This frenzy, which has taken the nation by storm and has all ingredients of a TRP booster that ould put even drama queen Ekta Kapoor to shame, finds a new reason everyday to make it to the headlines. Consequently an entire nation wakes up and settles down with the regular cup of tea to get their daily byte of how Shilpa Shetty cheered her team or how Yuvraj Singh was hugged by Preity Zinta. Amidst the glamour and show-biz, thus is lost the original purpose of launching the platform- to play meaningful, hardcore Cricket.
Oh Yes! There was a time when even Cricket was played by the likes of Sir Don Bradman, Geoffrey Boycott and closer home, Lala Amarnath and Tiger Pataudi. But now, the players in a cricket team do not play, they entertain. Even the newbees are now trained enough to talk to the Media even before they have hit a ball. It seems now proving your calibre depends on how well you can please the press.
While IPL boasts of even International players and brand Bollywood, one can not deny that it has brought down the level of cricket to a pure money-minting business. How would you explain the presence or need of semi-clad girls, with pom-poms and loud music, gyrating to the voyeurs in us as we sit gaping at them lustfully? Was there really a need to fly down these girls especially from foreign shores to shake a leg everytime a four or six is hit? Agreed that the franchisee owners are tycoons and can part with a few millions without batting an eyelid. But what effect does it cast on the young minds of the nation? For India, perhaps is the only country where Cricket is religion and a profession that is most coveted by kids and their parents.
When an army soldier loses his life while fighting at the frontier, the news may be published in a tiny corner in page 3 of a newspaper. But if a certain Shahrukh Khan vows to dance naked if his team wins the finals (or whatever his promise had been), it makes Page 1 material. Is his promise to dance sans clothes more important than a precious life? Have we become so artificial now that we'd rather read stuff that pleases the eyes than that which affects the mind? It seems as though IPL and the media have numbed our thinking process to a great extent.
Earlier we had young lads aspiring to serve the country by wanting to join the Army. It was soon replaced by Cricket. And the latest is perhaps the new destroyer called IPL. Regionalism to its hilt is now being promoted by our cricketers, BCCI and even the media. So now we support Kolkata or Delhi, and not India as a whole. Interestingly, it is only India that is being affected by all this. International players are all raking in the moolah and continuing to play for theircountries peacefully. It is only our players who end up slapping and fighting with each other. An Indian player's (read Yuvraj Singh) performance slags because he is denied the captaincy for his team. A bomb bursts before an IPL match, injuring our policemen and endangering the lives of a million Indians who had turned up to watch a two-hour drama.
Agreed that IPL brings in the much needed money to the country, but how much again goes into the country treasury? It is mostly the honourable Mr.Modi pocketing a major share (and rightfully so- since IPL had been his brainchild from the word 'Go') and the team-owners lapping up the rest. Players are now being taught that playing for their state would be more profitable than for their nation- and that has now become the benchmark of identifying a good cricketer. Forget the good-old days of test matches, what now matters is the number of sixes you hit and the even way you package it. IPL thus, is perhaps the biggest Bollywood Movie ever made, complete with superstars and celebrities, with a lot of oomph and gossip, corruption and gut-breaking action thrown in. The biggest box-office hit till date, it is the only movie that will continue to have sequels and will never run out of glitz. Go IPL, the ever-accommodating Indian audience awaits hungrily!
No comments:
Post a Comment