On the South African Premier League outsourced from India

So the IPL-2 started more on a whimper rather than a bang in the far away wilds of South Africa. The common man has to stick to his television to have a dekko at the cricket fare, the mundane and fairly insipid coverage. The Set Max team covering the event are doing everything except covering cricket. There is the Chinki dentist from Dhanbad, Meiyang Chang, cashing on his Indian Idol fan following and trying very hard to impress exercising his Hindi and often landing on a pile of tomfoolery. There is Mandira Bedi, back in full form and less hair, doing a wee bit better than her performance in the coverage of the 2003 World Cup. There is some tall dude, model, I guess, doing such that- modeling and engaging with Arun Lal. The normally loquacious and glib Arun Lal has perhaps been given feedback to improve his vernacular and keeps more engaged at communicating in Hindi rather than concentrating on cricket. The ever trustworthy Samaritans - old stalwarts Harsha, Gavaskar, Ravi et.al., restore some semblance of propriety with proper cricket coverage.

For the game, I must say I do not have too many complaints. The nature of the 20 – 20 terrain is such that the most innocuous of batting skills can win the day and couple of bad overs can take the game away from you. If you can live with that then there is a lot to applaud to. There is the dependable Hayden starting off Chennai Kings on a run riot in each game. Rahul Dravid is a man on a mission and plays all the shots he never played in his career. Gilly continuing from where he left off last time, has been playing like someone who easily has another ten years in him. Shane Warne turning and bouncing as usual and leading his band of unknowns. Sachin has turned in couple of blitzkriegs, though I think he is ‘trying’ too much. But the best batting so far has been AB De Villiers’s century, which was a classy innings and made Delhi Daredevils’s batting line up perhaps the most destructive. Then the magic man Murali whom I still can’t read and don’t think most of the batsmen do – but then at time swings connect and runs come in this form of cricket.

The celebrity quotient is fairly high with actors, models and business heads wanting to show their mug and talk cricket. There is Shilpa who is basking in the glory of her new found role, Priety continues to charm her team and the crowds, Shah Rukh flys kisses at the televisions as if the entire world is watching IPL to have a glance at him ( secretly I like him in this role, far more tolerable than his film roles and prosaic acting ), The GMR hoi polloi with whistles and clarnets, Nita Ambani showing some polish and looking more glam than the others and our man Vijay Mallya keeping his fingers crossed and praying that Jessie Ryder and Peitersen will do some justice to the Kingfisher beer sales – gobbling beers if not runs !

The popularity of the event is definitely no match to what it was last year. The ad men are running around frantically with the falling TRP rates, with election coverage in India picking up equal TRP and some viewers preferring to read the news rather wake up till late for the match results. The cheer leaders seem to have faced the recession with receding top lines and reducing bottom lines. Thank God, the Muthaliks of the world did not have enough dollars and are totally engrossed with their political futures, to fly in the moral police from India and mess up the dances. Lastly, I do feel for the Pakistani cricketers who could not participate in this event - I hope things are better for the next IPL and we see them play active roles.

For the business consultant in me, this is another venue for more consulting / outsourcing moolah. The IPL actually seems like the South African Premier League outsourced from India !