The Woozies

The ATP tour season ending awards are always popular. This got me thinking about some fun categories that fans may come up with for both the ATP as well as the WTA. Here are some categories I came up with for 2010 ( I'm sure there are alot more!). Take a break and relax! Presenting the Woozies-

First the Men

Houdini Award
Oh Del P, where are you?

Richie Rich Award
Private jet? Check
Child star? Check
Controversy? Check
Ernsts you poor li'l rich kid!

Witty Tweety Award
Take a bow Somi! For being so politically uncorrect, you are the witty tweety!

Snatching defeat from the Jaws of Victory Award
Stiff competition between Novak and Monfils, both French Open casualities, but Novak gets this one for unbelievably losing a match he was in complete control of.

Overhyped Underperformer of the year Award
Hot streaks freezing into ice?Check
Whipping up home crowd frenzy?Check
The Eternal British, Scottish, Royal, Wimbledon hoax, er hope? Check
Give it up for the Merman, oops the Murr mannnn

Congeniality Award
Mr Photogenic? Check
Mr. Goldilocks?Check
Mr. Chocolate? Check Check
Gifting your opponents matches after sqaundaring match points?Priceless
Take a bow Roger!

Mamma's boy no more Award
Hot video with latino pop star- Woohohohoo
You win no, Rafa?

Ye Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge Award
Derailed Indian express back on track, albeit for a short time.Watch out Bryan twins, these guy know a thing or two about chest bumps and fist pumps

Mr. Mystery Man Award

For making the press think that you are the mystery man in Serena’s life. For the unbelievable bizarreness of it all! Take a Bow A Rod!

Now the Ladies

Ms. Physically Present, Mentally Absent Award

Courting fashion? Check
Mistaking the court for a catwalk? Check
Oops your game took a walk. Come back Venus!!!

Ms. Nailing It Award
Designer nails are so passé, especially when you sharpen your claws yourself. Easy on them Serena!

Ms. Congeniality Award
Ms. Twitter?Check
First to wish ‘ happy birthday’? Check
Congratulate a fellow players success? Check
Nice gals finish last? Uncheck

They don’t make them like you anymore Kim!!

Ms. Heartbreak Award

Masha to wed Sasha. Need I say more?

Ms. Bollywood Melodrama Meltdown Queen Award
For making the Indian press concoct the unbearable tongue twister Shoania!

Ms. Show them who the boss is Award
Who wants the WTA, when only the STA matters. In the Serena Tennis Association we have the Serena slam and we all know who the real deal is. Take that flower puff girls!

Ms. Flowerpuff Award
Following her illustrious brethern, there's no stopping Caro!!!

Ms. Spectacular Meltdown Award
Double faults? Check
Deer caught in the headlights look?Check
Take a break Safina!

Ms. WonderWoman Award

Why did you wait this long Kimiko??

I think thats a fair wrap. Hope you enjoyed it, just for fun :)

Blisterin Barnacles!!! open them comixxx

Enough of all the serious jazz! I want to write about something light. Obviously I make a distinction between light and ‘to be taken lightly’. We all like to do things that lighten us, because it brings a smile on our face, a spring to our steps and makes us just laugh seemingly without rhyme or reason.

I for one, love to indulge in pastimes that weigh less heavily on the mind. Among those that come to mind immediately are music and reading. Let me focus on reading. Reading is hard to define for me simply because it entails more than just holding printed word in front of you. The real reading occurs when one processes what is written and translates it into some sort of understanding or comprehension that has the potential to plant subconscious thoughts that can guide our actions even ultimately. Too complex? Not really, but when one actually thinks about it, reading is one form on deconstructing someone else’s thought and reconstructing it in ones own head – a kind of linear communication that passes between the writer and the reader, only the impact will ultimately depend on how it is reconstructed.

We all read and for various purposes. Even those who don’t fancy themselves to be readers as the stereotype will define do some sort of reading, whether it is work related or otherwise. While I don’t consider myself to be a consistently voracious story reader, who can be found with a book all the time, I do have my moments where I get completely submerged into some fascinating world or the other. What I do read avidly, though are magazines, papers, just about anything conveying common knowledge. More importantly, I spent a significant part of my formative years reading ‘comics’. These wonderful illustrated stories have the potential to stretch the imagination more than any other medium in my opinion, because they are at the same time informative, educational, entertaining and more importantly just plain fun!

I remember waiting to go to the library as a kid during vacations and coming back with a colossal pile of among other types of books, comics and what wonderful stories they were! Coming to think of it, these books have played a significant role in shaping my thinking, much more so than I have even realized.

My love for Indian mythology can in some ways traced to the amazing Amar chitra katha stories that offer a treasure trove of information on Indian mythology, and which are far more captivating and exciting than any TV serial, simply because the illustration is so rich and the attention to detail so fine, despite having to work within a confining format.

My love for history, especially European history certainly has roots in asterix comics. These stories are evergreen and rich in humour but most importantly are historically accurate and have even been used to supplement text books in European schools!

My dabbling in international politics can in some ways be traced to tintin comics and their amazing stories of international deceit and espionage, which vividly portray so many countries across the globe and quite accurately too.

While it is impossible to measure the extent to which comics have impacted my life, it can certainly be said that they have enriched my life and broadened my vision beyond the confines of the limited story frames they detail.

Comics are normally viewed as frivolous pastime among children, but with these comics and many others, their power to enrapture and teach far outweighs any negative effects they might have. Let us not forget also, that the language in comics is exemplary. They can be thought of as guides that can help learners when they begin their literary journey, from whence readers can branch out into other literary pursuits.

Reading a comic is one of the most refreshing and entertaining pastimes one can indulge in. Amar rahe ye chitra kathaein!!

The Alphabet of life!!!

A weekend confined indoors has caused some seismic activity in here.
While the earth wont shatter
and the rain goes pitter patter
I'll cut the natter
and get to the heart of the matter.

My alphabet of life goes something like this ( not perfectly sychronized but then life isn't perfect) :

All the forces of the universe conspire to create what we call the
Birth , from whence emerges ,from the
Cocoon and is asked, are you ready to
Dance? Is this my first chance you wonder and ask the ancient question of
Existence. The answer is known and yet it differs everytime defined by your
Footsteps trailing across the eternal sands, extend your hands and
Grab the air. What you say will be dismissed as prattle, every
Hour that passes signifies that the race is on again
Into time , into space echo the shouts I versus you, filling the
Journey, with heat and light, cool and sparks, blending into the
Kaleidoscope, a chaotic puzzle, twists and turns, with hate and
Love at every turn, inescapable forces with
Metaphorical teachings, sometimes spurned, sometimes learned
Off the beaten track the heart goes, led back into the straight and narrow with a
Path to follow? It is your choice, but when expressed considered
Queer, but therein lies the eternal truth; life is strange!!!
Relax, but the mind wont stop!!!
Sleep, but remain awake, why fret when
Time is eternal and constructed by the divine, the unchanged in this
Universe we inhabit, smell the flowers, watch the raindrops
Ventilate or else the world will degenerate, let your thoughts flow like smooth
Water, the everlasting life giver, neither polluting nor diluting,
Xtend yourself with every twist and curve, don’t reminisce about
Yesterday’s gone by, live today with
Zest!!!!!!!!
Always smile :)

That Killer Instinct

My first post for this year. I remember starting out 2 years back, after watching an Andy Roddick Federer quarterfinal, which was fascinating for me because I discovered ‘ The Federer’ for the first time for myself and boy was I in awe!
2 years later, I’m writing at a time when Federer is at the cusp of taking another huge slice of history and rewriting it as his-story. How much longer will this amazing human continue to enthrall us? Your guess is as good as mine! Anyhow, as my current post will not focus on Federer, I will have to grievously move on.
I will focus my post on certain things that I believe are changing this country...both good and bad…
The Killer Instinct- Part I
Did I write a post a couple of years back on one of the prototypes of the Indian cricket fan lamenting the lack of fire our boys have in their belly’s??? Well, it seems as if they have loads and loads of that ulcer generating stuff nowadays, and I’m not just talking cricket, but in every conceivable sport I turn to, I see an Indian name marching along smartly- Saina in badminton ( mind you, its Saina and not Sania!), the Kumars in boxing, the Joshna’s and deepika’s squashing their opposition if you may ( I couldn’t resist that one), the one and only Abhinav Bindra and of course all these new names that keep popping up in tennis, the latest being Somdev and Yuki ( sounds like a nice Japanese name doesn’t it?). It is as if they just got into the car and started off in fourth gear- but wait a minute, that’s not all true. The Indian sporting authorities continue to be afflicted by the same disease that afflicts our politicians- bureaucracy and zero proactivness, so where did these kids just come up out of- nowehere? I guess that’s the answer- Nowhere!! Most of these kids took to the sport of their choice at a tender age and have basically labored on, away from the limelight, weathering sponsorship hassles, and poor infrastructure and yet emerged winners! That’s something isn’t it? No matter how far these youngsters progress in their career, what they have already achieved is pathbreaking in that they took the risks that will enable generations to follow to follow their sporting dream. Its official now- sports is an official career option! And while there are still many hurdles to face and the old problems persist, we know that a willing heart will certainly find a path!
Coming back to Federer ( I know I said I would move on, but I think this is relevant to the discussion),his killer instinct is beyond doubt, so I wont talk about it, what is amazing me these days is his ability to bounce back. There is alot that these fiery Indian youngsters can learn from the likes of federer and Nadal, starting from their fitness and agility, to their mental toughness, anticipation and most importantly their ability to close things out. Well begun is half done is not a phrase that finds currency in professional sport, its well done that is full done that is more apt. That is what these youngsters are also displaying. I’m beginning to wonder why sportsmen and women in the past have not been able to display this confidence, this assurdness in their own ability before? Was there some linkage between their physical conditioning and their mental toughness or is this just an attitudinal shift? I will place my bets on the latter. Attitude is what separates the great from the good and that is what I suspect many young sports persons have in plenty these days. So, why did this attitudinal shift occur? If you notice, a lot of the youngsters these days, they have all grown up in the post reform era, at a time when our society was increasingly exposed to multitudinal direct and indirect influences- the era of cable tv, the era of growing fitness consciousness, the era of the growing Indian middle class and most importantly the era of the young Indian- we have a lot more teenagers and 20 somethings in this country than in any other country and if half your population is between 13 and 24 and if even 10% of them take up professional sport and stick to it, you certainly have the best shot that any country does at sporting glory.
The growth of the smaller cities and towns and the enormous energy that all this has created has finally opened up the doors for the truly talented in this country- inspite of the geriatric bureaucracy mind you. I only hope that a willing administration will back these youngsters with the financial muscle they require. This is an opportunity, we as a country must not let slip through our hands. I suspect that over the next 40 or so years, we will see the emergence of many such youngsters who display skill, passion, ability and willingness along with the all important fire to win- let us encourage them to cross the threshold and reach the highest echelons in every sport!
The Killer Instinct- Part II
So we have youngsters dancing to the winning tune, but on the other hand we have girls dancing in clubs being mauled at! Now that’s a tune the majority does not want to hear and neither do these shameful acts bring any credit to this country. India, therefore remains this chaotic kaleidoscope where when 10 people push you forward, 15 people will push you back. Even that I will say is not entirely true, as the Indian family in my opinion, is one of the biggest social infrastructure assets anyone could hope to have and will surely play a great role in grooming these wonderful youngsters in their ensuing glory years.
What I am referring to are these fringe organizations that take it upon themselves to prescribe the right and ‘righteous’ medicine to the youth, and more specifically one gender of the youth. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, India is certainly going back to its rich cultural and traditional roots when one sex is beaten up, its definitely up there when the same sex is molested at the work place and dowry deaths- whats that? They go by the name under the carpet incidents these days. This is India at its cultural best! It is these kind of fringe organizations that our gods have sent down to maintain our moral values- another sort of killer instinct developing don’t you think? Killer instincts nursed with a good amount of alchohol I’ll bet ( though not from the pubs!) and a huge injection of male machismo. My advice to ladies in general- lets move on, the more we react, the more these sort of things will occur and remember its election year, so this once in five year morality maintaining cycle is being enacted once again. If we must do something lets all register in some self defense classes, I’m sure they will come in handy some day!

The Killer Instinct – Part III
While the first killer instinct highlights individual acheivment, and the second one created a marauding mob, the third one mourns the death of the individual. Welcome to the India where clichés combined with social prescriptions kill all individuality. Let me start with the fair and lovely ad campaign- how long have we been seeing these advertisements now- 15 years, 20 years, and yet they remain frighteningly the same, its just the list of accomplishments that accompany the use of the product that has increased. You can actually have a job now without applying the cream (thank god for small mercies), but you still cant win a dancing competition or get a guy, but the cream that’s a miracle worker altogether- in 6 weeks you get the 3 in one package of ‘fairness’, ‘confidence’ and that plastic guy or the dance competition- whoppie!!! Individual talent, self belief- zilch. I wont say the company is at fault, after all they reflect the society and a fair face still sells, even if its anemic and ghostly- harking back to our fascination for ‘velaikaarans’ and ‘firangi’s.
Here’s another prized one that never ceases to amaze me- the perfect man campaign- check out the logic of these guys- The way to becoming a perfect man is to wear this company’s suit- if only being perfect were that simple. Somehow, the suit with magical powers ‘vest’ed in it, will make a man a hero to football playing kids and prevent a lost pretty young thing from falling in her own wedding reception- all because he has that suit on, makes me wonder what a wimp he must be otherwise. Once again, it is not the Raymond company which is at fault, so much as the prevailing mindset that says that the Indian man is perfect only if he is this mythical hero and by the same token that the Indian woman is the holy protector of Indian values.
It is this prevailing social killer instinct that kills all individuality and tears apart any semblance of individuality.
Having said that, I will reiterate the point that none of these instincts, save the first one has a remote chance of becoming an established norm or a cemented mindset. For all those media watchdogs, who believe in hyperbolic epithets like ‘India’s 9/11’ or the ‘Talibanization of India’ I have one suggestion- just relax; neither is correct and it isn’t likely to happen, and at the risk of sounding patronizing I will say this- India has survived many invasions, many cultural upheavels, witnessed many battles and yet its still there and is not likely to go anywhere anytime soon, and we absolutely do not need to attach ourselves to western comparisons and phraseology to describe events, which if I may say are uniquely Indian good and bad. Let us all wake up to this invigorating new india, as intoxicating as filter coffee, as fresh as the morning dew and as courageous as the legendary ancestors that have inhabited this land!!!

Media immunity or media impunity?

There have been some thoughts festering within me, that I wish to express. My thoughts are still an untamed mess; therefore I hereby sacrifice coherency at the altar of expression.
The last week was a strange experience for those millions in this country, who have been brought up on a staple diet of cable television. We witnessed the first live sting operation by our 24/7 news channels and to use an unpolished phase we fell into it 'hook, line and sinker' didn't we?
Welcome to the era of 24/7 hardhitting news, where no stone is left unturned in order to serve up the truth, but to what extent can and did the media go in order to acheive this end and was this really the end they wished to visit?
After a day or so of watching those unforgettable events unfold, it was becoming apparent that the media's focus was neith on the act of terror itself nor the terrorized public, but rather on its own turf war.
The conflict within the media and between the media channels had superceded all else and in its quest to become the first channel to capture the 'breaking news', each channel, in my opinion violated many fundamental tenets of censure, that the media must practice.
By all accounts the events that unfolded deserved focussed attention and the public had the right to information. Yet, the media in its own quest for singular glory, perhaps crossed all boundaries. What we witnessed was a 24/7 war movie or rather that is how the media wished to showcase the events, from the jarring background music to the in your face journalists, who were omnipresent and always trying to shout above the din, rendering just about everyone else speechless.
Enough is enough says one chanel, anger, tears and determination says another. This is not a mystery thriller and the media is not the whoddunit.
What struck me most was the level of maturity or shall we say immaturity displayed by the media.
Take this for example: witnessing some loud shouts outside nariman house, a journalist says thats it the operation in nariman house is over; the commando showed a thumbs up sign. We were to learn later that the operation did not end there. Another journalist says I think there are 6 terrorists inside the Taj, but this is unconfirmed. My question here is, if it is unconfirmed, why do you say it?There were man other such instances.
The media is meant to be a medium for the expression of facts. It was never meant to take the facts into its own hands and twist it for its connivance. Yet, that is what the visual media in this country has been trying to do for the past 2 weeks. We witnessed many scenes of microphones eith being thrust right into the face of the survivors or being thrust into the faces of fireman who were doing their job.
Some of the journalists repeatedly tried and succeded in violating boundary lines set by the authorities, leaving me to wonder if they were aiding or hindering the work of the authorities.
The media has, in my opinion also been singularly biased in its reportage of public opinion. Actors and Socialites, do not represent mass public opinion. Yet, in the days following the attacks, we were privy to comments from every immaculately dressed page 3 figure and were given a crash course in policy making by these know it alls. While I appreciate their sentiments and can understand their anger, the media failed in its responsibility to remain objective.
The most tragic episode in the media coverage, occured after the events ended. Each media house swarmed the hotels like vultures swooping onto a carcass and proceeded to claim to become the first to show us the carnage inside these beautiful hotels. What was the need to enter into these places when the sanitization operations were not even complete? Another interesting thought which strucke me was how singleminded the media was in covering these hotels, but completely ignored the other places. Did the public not have a right to know what happened in the CST or by the same token the hospital, or is the media in this country only a voice for the elite?
The media has every right to criticize a governments policies and has every right to be the ones to say the politicians erred at too costly a price, but the media in this country is trying to stage a revolution and trying to whip up a mass frenzy that it does not have the maturity to handle. It seems to me that the media is just picking up opinions that suit its tune and trying hard to make the music it wishes to hear for itself from this.
I have always felt that the media in this country must be made to follow a certain ethical code of conduct and I have never felt this more strongly than in the aftermath of these attacks. There is a strong need for a more calm media that can at least try and voice different shades of public opinion. Instead what we have are either media honchos who are locked in an ' who will lose their vocal chords first contest' or rookies pretending to be master of all trades but ending up being jack of none.

Dasavatharam- Chaos and more

Having watched the movie, here I am jumping onto the bandwagon of those movie reviewers. I thought long hard and asked myself the question- should I review a movie that has been done and dusted as far as critics are concerned?
Whenever anything of a colossal nature enters the mindspace of crores of people, it creates a self induced hype and craze, that is no doubt fed by a predetermined marketing blitz as well. In this case the anticipation was set from the name itself- no doubt a reference to the 10 roles that the actor was going to essay, but what about these roles? What was the nature of the roles, why was he portraying 10 and not 9 or 11? Was it for the purpose of creating the world record or would there be enough substance to overpower a fact that was very much in your face?
Well, to start with let me say that I was extremely impressed with the brilliance of the story and how all the parts were neatly woven in together into a complex matrix where not a single thread was out of place or took a path which was in contention with its original starting point. It’s not often that you see a story that begins behind the mysterious fog of religion, only to have this fog lifted by the enlightenment of scientific vision, or so the storyteller would have us believe.
I suppose this contrast is especially visible because the story moves straight from the religious confines of the 12th century into the confines of a plush 21st century science lab populated by hardworking scientists guided by purely rationalistic notions of well… science.
The battle between religion and science is an age old one, and many a time it seems as if there is no middle path between the two. There are many widely respected thinkers whose viewpoints fall firmly within one side of the fence or the other and it is true that this debate is a lot more vociferous in the west, especially in the US than it is in India. It is not uncommon to find scientists with firm religious beliefs in India, while many a time in the west marriage to science has led to a divorce from religion.
There are many reasons for this, some of which have their origins in the doors that lead to the various lobbying groups in the US and the kind of political and more importantly financial muscle this means. The actor alludes to it himself in the scene where the President is increasing the funding for the particular stream of research that the actors company is involved in.
For a story which starts there, it moves dramatically into the land of multi cultural, multi lingual and most importantly multi religious india, where the chaos theory it seems find a perfect foil in 'chaotic' India.
The pace of the story moves rapidly and unless one is clued in on every little nuance that unfolds, one is in danger of being left clueless and scrathching ones head in a poor imitation of hanu, the monkey who’s fate in the movie is an ominous representation of what the future holds as a consequence of human carelessness, ignorance or greed.
Coming to the subject matter of fate, this is a topic which the actor has laid out on the table and served with ample helpings of skepticism. To be fair to the actor though, he has woven all the major arguments in the atheist versus theist debate very subtly into the script, while still leaving enough suspense and drama hanging in the air for the audience to grasp onto.
So, to me the story seemed to be a super structure containing various layers, each of which encased in itself a major debate, be it philosophical ( do humans control their destiny or is there an over powering force that orchestrates all these events in a sort of organized ‘chaos'?), scientific( the debate between science and religion itself- if humans control their destiny then why blame fate and on the flip side, if there is a supernatural power, then does it have the right to wipe out teeming thousands in the form of the tsunami in order to prevent the consequences of a possible biological virus attack and, in such a scenario, why are the paths of humanity led onto this dangerous road to scientific destruction , when science need not be made to breach these dangerous frontiers in the first place.) or religious.
Most of these very complex arguments are placed very subtly in front of the viewer and while it does seem as if the final verdict is the viewers, the façade of objectivity is broken by the actor himself, in his not so subtle rhetoric.
It is a well publicized fact that this particular actor is an atheist and kudos to him for trying to create this complex potentially destructive mixture, but to me it seemed as if at many instances his atheist view points were sacrificed for more aggressive rhetoric directed against a particular religion, right from the practices, to the language and even to a judgement about the attititude towards humanity members of a particular religion had, when compared to others. It is here that I felt let down by the movie.
I felt there was little need to delve into the intricate practices of this religion only to show them up in poor light every single time. A highly subjective viewpoint can mar creative genius or in this case elevate the genius to such an extent that subtle barbs can be woven so well into the script that they actually seem innocuous after all!
I don’t wish to delve into the exact circumstances for these barbs in the movie itself, for there are many and it would be a waste of time when one knows that the creator probably knew very well what he intended to deliver in the very first place. In any case, in this era where one should be ideally aiming for religious enlightenment and tolerance, there is little purpose in delving into aspects which one finds hard to digest simply because they are an intentional representation of only the negative aspects. I found it quite humorous after a point and admired the creators wit.
So to me, this movie falls short of being a work of a genius simply because the creator gave up his objectivity which was showcased so beautifully in all other aspects of the movie, for a more intentionally subjective interpretation which reared its head again and again.
Yet, at the end of the day, this is one movie I found to be far superior to so many of its contemporaries, that have led to crater like holes when one attempts to open up the story in them. The movie is classy and the efforts put in by the actor are obviously of an unimaginable magnitude. Watch it ,for there is substance behind the hype.

The Boundaries of Sports Nationalism

The recently concluded Indian Premier League 20-20 tournament has been a phenomenal success by all accounts. Many of the naysayers were forced to sit up and re think their predictions and even their predicaments in the face of the results that the heady mix of star power (cricket and films), media, marketing and oh yes, that little ol’ insignificant creature called money produced- in your face, in your TV screens, powerful enough to create a soap opera like drama that even drew the reluctant, not so cricket desperate housewives like moths to the ever shining beacon of cricketing luminescence.
The month and a half of cricket madness produced its fair share of controversies (like any blockbuster in this land of controversies would), but the sheer intensity and the high recall value of the IPL was such that after a week, it became hard to imagine a life without the 8’o’ clock phenomenon. Had there actually been a time when we sat in front of the TV trawling the channels mindlessly in search of legitimate fare for evening entertainment. All that was temporarily history as the idiot box metamorphosized into the fool’s paradise.
Night after night audiences in their homes and in the stadia cheered on as their favourite hero’s ( many a time not with an Indian sounding name) donned a local team jersey and battled it out in the middle for four hours with opponents that sometimes contained players who were inostentiably their national team mates.
This got me thinking about the success of this league itself? Many times have glamour and cricket brushed shoulders but no one had been able to imagine a format that brought the two in such close heady contact, so as to feed off on each other and reach a point where it was impossible to gather who benefitted the most. Was Sharukh Khan using his star power to make the crowd go into a mass frenzy cheering for the Kolkata night riders, or was he just another instrument in this spanking new fast food game, who was trying to ensure that his star power was not diluted by the rising stature of our cricketing icons, foraying into the lion’s den to ensure that his charisma remained in the public consciousness? Your guess is as good as mine.
However, the IPL produced something that cricketing fans could not possibly complain about- that dream team. Cricket, rightly put is a national past time in India and while I’m uncomfortable about elevating the sport’s status by creating metaphors to describe its success, it is however true that over the last decade and a half cricket has reached that enviable status as a national obsession which can be hated or loved, but not ignored. Coming back to that phenomenon called the dream team, many an Indian cricket lover has spent hours of precious time and energy tracking the fortunes of not only his or her favourite team, but that of other teams as well, that contained players that were more revered here than perhaps even in their own nation.
So, cable TV fondly nurtured this phenomenon, until it produced varying levels of cricket following and various prototypes and sub prototypes of the cricketing fan, who could on the one hand obsessively follow the travails of the home team, but on the other hand, develop an inner, sub conscious, or sometimes super conscious affinity for opposing teams because of their skill, talent, and ability to produced stunning team coordinated efforts.
What cable TV began, the internet nourished and suddenly cricket, like many other phenomena, was a remote or keyboard click away. The theory of diminishing marginal utility was simply unheard of in this world.
Marketing principles talk about something called the product life cycle, wherein every product reaches a maturity stage, where it must diversify or innovate in order to survive. The cricketing product, was diversifying and innovating at a frenetic pace, and while most of it happened external to the product itself – cable TV and the internet were external tools that unwittingly created subtle product differentiations, twenty- twenty internalized the product innovation- probably analogous to the distinction between a physical reaction and a chemical reaction.
The birth of one day cricket produced the first phase of product innovation, but the turnover time was much greater in the case of one day cricket because it grew unaided by the mass media phenomenan.
The stage was however set by the time twenty twenty entered the fray and what we had was a formula for instant success. Cricket had long survived in the face of shorter, more intense sports, but the era of the mass media pitted these other sports against cricket and were chipping away at the viewership, by small amounts, but chipping away nonetheless. While, I’m sure the creators of twenty twenty or the IPL would not have thought of twenty twenty as a mechanism to counter dwindling audiences, no matter how small, they had unwittingly created a formula, which not only re invented the game, but also re invented the concept of mass viewership, bringing in sectors of viewership who had previously not considered the sport an effective pastime.
Yet the question remains, why the IPL and why India? The IPL was no doubt modeled on the English premier league, which has over the years become a bastion of loyalty toward sporting clubs. It is hard to imagine instant loyalty toward IPL teams similar to EPL loyalties, that have been generated over a much larger time frame.
Loyalty to the league had to be created before loyalty to the teams, so to speak, reinventing the nationalist phenomena of local loyalty spawning supra nationalist loyalty. That could be done, only through effective product marketing. Effective product marketing is a successful tool only if the product itself is successful, and in this case, what better way to create a successful product that by using product symbolism that was sure to generate an instant loyalty.
Therefore, the already existant fan base for national and international cricketers was capitalized to the hilt by creating teams that consisted of combinations hitherto unheard of- Shoab Malik and Virender Sehwag in the same team, Warney and the Pidgeon facing off, Sachin and Sourav facing off- all this packaged into a format created to thrill and titillate and produce spurts of ecstacy? The cricketers therefore embodied product symbolism as they each became vehicles of sporting marketing aimed at creating loyalties, not to towards the teams but towards the league.
Why was this essential? Simple because of the need to create mass viewership. It was not sufficient to create islands of loyalty where only the matches of local teams were followed. Rather a pan nationalist league loyalty had to precede and outshadow local loyalties and the incessant marketing and repeated broadcasts strove to bring about a situation wherein it was no longer unnatural for a cricketer from madras to give his all to a delhi team or for that matter, for an aussie to bhangra! That to me is the true success of the IPL- to make a situation of novelty one of normalcy.
The first year of the IPL has therefore ended in its success simply because it stayed away from creating divisive team loyalties, rather it spawned pan league loyalty. India, is by all accounts, a nation of contrasts , and it has turned every theory of democracy, multi pluralism and nationalism on its head, and created a unique standpoint which is hard to decipher but easy to understand. For instance, the theory of democracy states that only elite, enlightened societies can perpetuate it. India, however, has withstood the test of democracy since its inception as a nation embroiled with divisive class, nationalist and secessionist movements. Democratic and divisive tendencies have survived both inspite of and in tandem with one another.
Similarly, cricket following in this nation has many levels attached to it, as I have earlier mentioned. While, on the one hand, there exists a latent, powerful loyalty towards homegrown teams and heroes, on the other, there exists, equally powerful pulls towards teams and heroes from other teams, born out of an immense knowledge base, nurtured by mediums of knowledge transfer such as the television and the internet.
The IPL appealed to the latter fan, not the former and succeeded in enticing the latter fan to shed his nationalist coat and don a more internationalist garb, wherein his dream team came to life, not once , not twice but several times, and in combinations he could never dream of, leading him to the altar of sporting delight, while simulataneously enabling him to maintain that neutrality that every true sporting fan hopes to possess.
Isn’t the term the Indian cricket league a terrific misnomer and should it not be re named international Premier League?