THE Indian Premier League was to be cricket as we had never seen it before but after the opening weekend, it is hard to avoid the impression it is just cricket.
Sure, there were imported cheerleaders, but in the case of the flexible Washington Redskins girls brought in by Indian beer baron and owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers Vijay Mallya, the party lasted only until the team was walloped in the first game by Kolkata, at which point he spat the dummy and called off the star-studded launch of his team’s new music video.
Kolkata’s Telegraph newspaper reported that such a celebration, on the back of a 140-run loss, would have been bad for the Royal Challenge brand, which after all was a beer and whisky label before it was a cricket team. It is possible Bangalore’s own Cameron White didn’t feel much like singing and dancing anyway after leaking 24 runs from his one and only over.
About 204,000 Australians switched on Channel Ten to witness the IPL’s debut, a strange enough experience in itself for a country comforted by the Yoda-like presence of Richie Benaud on Nine screens for the past three decades.
So it was comforting to hear the familiar voice of experienced West Indian commentator Tony Cozier, a presence to lend the whole experience some badly needed — some would say, unwarranted — credibility. There is no shortage of movie stars willing to align themselves with the IPL, which in India may amount to the same thing. (A fan reportedly fell from the stands at Eden Gardens on Sunday night as he strained to catch a glimpse of Bollywood heart-throb Shah Rukh Khan, whose company Red Chillies Entertainment owns the Kolkata Knightriders.)
But in order for the IPL to be a long-term success, for it to generate big television audiences in India and around the world for six weeks and 59 games, it will have to tap into something beyond the initial curiosity of seeing Ricky Ponting launch himself into the arms of Ishant Sharma, the fast bowler who only a couple of months ago starred in the Australian captain’s nightmares. Now, he is a fellow Knightrider.
It will have to surpass the initial intrigue of the Indian crowd’s reaction when Andrew Symonds walks out to bat for Hyderabad, which was described by Cozier at Eden Gardens on Sunday night as “rather mixed”.
It will have to create tribal allegiances, a concept Mahendra Singh Dhoni remarked before the tournament does not come naturally to local cricket fans. “Indians are used to supporting Indians and it will be a tricky situation for them to evoke city loyalties,” said Dhoni, delivered by auction to Chennai. “I cannot imagine the Chepauk Stadium erupting in joy if (Mumbai captain) Sachin Tendulkar is dismissed by (Chennai’s) Muralidaran. As a cricketer, it will be interesting to watch the crowds and their reactions to this new format.”
More interesting still to see whether viewers in Australia stick with the IPL after they have figured out who is under the gold helmet and why on earth Ponting would be talking tactics with Sourav Ganguly. For in the end, it is only cricket, in which a batsman like David Hussey must roll up his sleeves and earn his $730,000 by grinding out a match-high 38 runs to win the game for his team (that’s Kolkata, in case you were wondering) on a minefield of a pitch.
Original Article by Chloe Saltau
Related posts:
- Watch Indian Premier League Online & on Mobile IPL Season III has started with a bang – Kolkata Knight RIders (KKR) have won a thrilling match which could have gone both the ways. If you cannot watch...
- Special trains for IPL matches at Eden Gardens – IndiaTimes KOLKATA: To clear rush of IPL cricket lovers, Eastern Railway will run two EMU special trains--one between BBD Bagh and Baruipur and other between Prinsep Ghat and Naihati--for all the...