Now that IPL fever is subsidizing
let me start this post with a simple disclaimer:
“I do not believe in a religion called Cricket”
Now that most Indians who are reading this will consider me an anomaly, I will agree with them. If I have to quote a real sports man.:
“How can you party till 2 am and then play a match for 5 hours and consider the activity sports?”
So I have never been able to understand all this hulla gulla about IPL and various teams in it and never bothered to worry who has won and who has lost. Till some time back...
“I do not believe in a religion called Cricket”
Now that most Indians who are reading this will consider me an anomaly, I will agree with them. If I have to quote a real sports man.:
“How can you party till 2 am and then play a match for 5 hours and consider the activity sports?”
So I have never been able to understand all this hulla gulla about IPL and various teams in it and never bothered to worry who has won and who has lost. Till some time back...
I was
checking Facebook and saw comments about the current champions that were
not so flattering by somebody who obviously was a fan of a losing team. In my
absolute ignorance about passions that religions like Cricket can invoke I
wrote a comment that supported the celebrations by the winning team.
And all hell broke loose... even people who were not part of original discussion joined with passion that has to be seen to believed...
Soon there were people from both sides willing to kill each other on the Facebook publicly. Your bloggers intelligence was questioned multiple times, which I also started doubting considering I was now in a debate that had nothing to do with cricket, or cricket fans but soon became a very vicious personal attack.
Any ways long story short the marketing men behind IPL have been able to create strong loyalty in the mind of people for their respective city teams. What this means for future?
From a nation where we are divided on the lines of religion, region, caste, political affiliation etc., now we have one more reason to bay for each other’s blood... that is IPL teams.
And are people confused... what is somebody like me who is from Delhi but lives in Hyderabad suppose to do? Do I support Delhi my home town or Hyderabad now my home? Think about the dilemma of a Benarsi babu living in Mumbai in fear of Raj and his dreams of Raj on Mumbai? But he wants to support Mumbai team... or let us imagine the God of cricket Sachin is sold to another team next season ( purely hypothetical question please don’t give a supari on my name ...) What will the average Mumbaikar do then? Cheer for Mumbai or the team Sachin will be playing (hopefully that day will never come). Or what am I suppose to do once my team is out of tournament which team do I support now? Or do I shut down my TV till next season?
So how the loyalties and royalties of cricket will evolve in next few years remains to be seen, but if things are any indication we have one more reason to hate each other. It seems we all have this mantra now
“I love my India...but I hate my fellow Indians who do not support my team”
And all hell broke loose... even people who were not part of original discussion joined with passion that has to be seen to believed...
Soon there were people from both sides willing to kill each other on the Facebook publicly. Your bloggers intelligence was questioned multiple times, which I also started doubting considering I was now in a debate that had nothing to do with cricket, or cricket fans but soon became a very vicious personal attack.
Any ways long story short the marketing men behind IPL have been able to create strong loyalty in the mind of people for their respective city teams. What this means for future?
From a nation where we are divided on the lines of religion, region, caste, political affiliation etc., now we have one more reason to bay for each other’s blood... that is IPL teams.
And are people confused... what is somebody like me who is from Delhi but lives in Hyderabad suppose to do? Do I support Delhi my home town or Hyderabad now my home? Think about the dilemma of a Benarsi babu living in Mumbai in fear of Raj and his dreams of Raj on Mumbai? But he wants to support Mumbai team... or let us imagine the God of cricket Sachin is sold to another team next season ( purely hypothetical question please don’t give a supari on my name ...) What will the average Mumbaikar do then? Cheer for Mumbai or the team Sachin will be playing (hopefully that day will never come). Or what am I suppose to do once my team is out of tournament which team do I support now? Or do I shut down my TV till next season?
So how the loyalties and royalties of cricket will evolve in next few years remains to be seen, but if things are any indication we have one more reason to hate each other. It seems we all have this mantra now
“I love my India...but I hate my fellow Indians who do not support my team”
But always an optimist I would like to see the positive side, just look at SRK, who delhi considers its own, but made it big in Mumbai and now owns a team in Kolkota. Or Shilpa Sambhar Shetty married to a Panjoo Parantha owning a team in Daal Batee Choorma Rajasthan, Or Subroto"Pehle Aap" Rai from Lucknow having a stake in Pune pie. May be this will instil a strong sense of cross pollination and people will cheer for teams that play better and not because they belong to a city we identify with. Why only owners each team has players from different part of the country and they work very hard to ensure that the team they are playing for wins ( match fixing scandals are another story!)
What will happen only time will tell, but passionate fans till that date will keep on spending money on buying merchandise and tickets, and the marketing men of IPL will be merrily marching towards bank.
Thanks for reading.
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