“The Indian Premier League (IPL) has done wonders for bank balances across the globe” read one of the articles in The Telegraph. But how long is this dream run of the IPL going to last. All of us know that India is a cricket crazy country and rewards any form of cricket with bounties.
If we go back in history, the young India immediately after independence was an insecure country desperate for some recognition among the world countries. The desperation for recognition was only fuelled by the fact that we were constantly being ignored by the world countries. Worst of all, our very survival was dependant on the food and money supplies from the developed countries and the world bank.
When Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing achieved the feat of reaching the highest point in both the world and in history, there was a controversy over who reached the summit first. Desperate for recognition India proclaimed Tenzing to be the first person to set foot on the everest. Even though Tenzing was of Nepali origin and he was merely helping hillary to ascend the peak, Indians took pride in proclaiming Tenzing to be the first person on the everest with hillary’s name not even being mentioned. So desperate was the need for recognition….
Coming back to Cricket, the first ever test match India won was against England in 1952 in Madras followed immediately by a series win against Pakistan in the same year. These victories were soon forgotten because the next victory came in 1956 against New Zealand after four years. Soon this too was forgotten and it took us till 1971, a whopping 16 years, for a back to back series win against West indies and England respectively under the captaincy of Ajit wadekar.
The country growing more and more desperate day by day, due to the constant economic crisis, sectarian crisis, lack of recognition, bad government policies found a solace in cricket since it brought with it the much needed recognition for India.
Cricket Fever reached the crescendo with India winning the World cup in 1983, beating the West Indies, and then followed the Asia cup in 1984, and the World championship of cricket in 1985.
Cricket, was being crowned from a “solace for recognition” to a religion by itself. The victories after that and the emergence of world class cricketers like Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin, Azharruddin, Saurav Ganguly etc. made cricket as not only the unofficial national sports of India but also the most money spinning sporting event.
If we look at the history it was not the love for cricket, which made us love the game but the love for the country and yearning for recognition among the world countries which made cricket in India a success. The underlying passions that our country is able to win a championship in the world arena made us Indians exult with joy.
Looking at the IPL with the same prism, the same passion for one’s city or favorite team is either absent or artificially created by roping in film stars. Also in the teams there are more foreign players, stating the fact that the name Chennai or Rajasthan or whatever being prefixed to the team name does not have any significance for the viewer.
And thirdly being a fan of Sachin Tendulkar, I did admire his batting in the first IPL match against Chennai. But logically speaking being in Chennai, and as a fan supporting one particular side, I shouldn’t have done so. Again we Indians love to take sides, even though if we are in the wrong side we love to stick to our stand. So in IPL you have to either enjoy the game not caring about the side which is playing or you should be confused whether to support your city/state side or your favorite player or your favorite film star.
The very novelty of the idea and the marriage between cricket and Bollywood made IPL a money spinner in India, but how long will this dream run last. In view of the above mentioned reasons the long term prospect of IPL filling the bank balances is questionable.
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