The drama called IPL

The hype and hoopla around IPL has been going around for quite sometime and all those days, I thought that this was going to be a major flop. OK, the guys involved in the business where the mega richies of India- Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity and Ness Wadia, India Cements group etc. But, the thought of having round the clock cricket with teams in the nature of English football clubs and players being drawn from all over the world did not sound a hugely successful idea to me!

IPL has finally kicked off and I have had to eat humble pie- thanks to the huge media hype, excellent public support and fabulous sponsorship money that the whole idea is generating! But, with all this has emerged something else- high voltage drama on the ground! How else would you describe Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth on his face and Ganguly fighting with the umpire over a catch! The BCCI has risen to the occasion and has put bans and fines in its place but what has left me wondering is why the players did not react so violently when such incidents took place on international platforms!

Take the Harbhajan- Sreesanth episode for instance- when Mumbai Indians lost out to Punjab Kings, Sreesanth apparently commented to Harbhajan that it was “hard luck”. Now there is nothing offensive about that comment and there is no need why Bhajji reacted so violently to it. It is not that Bhajji has not been subject to such comments or even worse comments on international platforms- Andrew Symonds would know. But never has he bothered to raise his hand on international matches!

Bad umpiring has a history that is as old as cricket itself. Dada has been subject to bad umpiring decisions before like many of his team members but never before has one seen Dada making such frantic appeals to the umpire to consult the third umpire! Why is it that so much of drama is taking place in the IPL?

The answer is very simple- it is all about money, honey! T- 20 and IPL they say has revolutionized cricket. I would like to reserve my comments on that but the one single revolution that this whole exercise has brought forth is that it has reduced the sport to a mere money making mechanism and has raised the sportsmen to a level from where if they look the sport itself looks too trivial to them!

Yes, the Indian cricketers have definitely and completely lost that spirit to play for one’s country. All that matters to them is money, endorsements and the luxurious life that comes with it! Just like how the sport of cricket has had a major face lift- high society socialites and celebrities cheering the sportsmen and cameras permanently affixed on the posteriors of scantily clad cheer leaders! Honestly I do not have an idea which direction this whole sport is heading to!

Talk about revolutions…