Grace. yeah thats the word. Grace was missing. I was watching a cricket match after years. I missed even the world cups and the 20-20s to eventually come back one day and watch the Mumbai Indians ( Mumbai Titans could have sounded better, whatever...) clash with The Bangalore RC. Honestly I had great hopes with this experiment called IPL. But the performance of sub-sub-junior players who still aint outta their diapers made me realize what a great experience watching ODIs was. Frankly there aint anything else but the business model to blame.
Complaints now. I thought I was watching high profile players. Spare the under-19 players, I saw no reason why Robin Uthappa was playing the unconventional paddle scoop when least needed. It was as if there was no other damn thing he could think off. The shots paid but eventually ( and quite deservedly :X ) got him stumped. Damn irritating it looked and Jacques Kallis was not the only man who was frustrated with that.
The other thing was the bowing action. I would have never realised how inelegant was Vinay Kumar's bowling action if Shaun Pollack would have not been playing the same match. Not only Kumar, but Dhaval Kulkarni, Akhil and many other diaper-wrapped 19 year olds did the same. And yeah, now you could say they're all U-22, but hey! this is a billion dollar business. We aint paying for nothing.
Coming back to my first statement, I found grace missing. The irritating snicks and clicks and flicks ( those predictable Uthappa scoops included... ), the inexperienced bowling attack, lack of heat of a billion dollar tournament, Absent innovation ( except the staggered scorecard may be...) , visibly ridiculous strategies ( Notice it was the kid Dhaval kulkarni who was bowling the final over against RC...) and the distracting semi-naked cheerleaders, they all poured in to make worst out of what possibly could have been the best.
Now what. Well, I dont hate IPL, neither I call it a failure. But definitely its not the same revolution that perhaps the 1992 world cup was. And what did 1992 WC bring for us? Well, call me up sometime. I am too tired to write about it. May be someday I'll take some GBs of web space to write on that.
In short: Wait for the next post. :-)
6 comments:
Inconsequential. Thee are better than this. If thee wish to humiliate others with thy words, do it with vengeance. Fretting over it makes thee a ladis. :P
Who said ladis always fret ? I don;t agree Mr Francisco !
Ok...Time for some explanations
1. @abhijeet - I get your point. Ladis thee need not target
2.@ manasi - Fine, ladis don't fret. But what about my blog? :D
Needless to say, my point is proven. :P
The IPL was the biggest it could get, overshadowing even the world cup ! what more should one expect. The billion dollar business indeed was handled like a bdb. and the babes and bums were attractions for public, not distraction. as far as purist's purview, cricket has changed since (W.G.)'Grace' days.and change however irritating, is unavoidable ,just like as shown on a recent TV ad (for ceat tyres).
@Vishal
If thee have faintest memory of 1992 World Cup, thee would surely call IPL a letdown.
If
x=Cricket before 1992
y=Cricket after 1992
w=Cricket before IPL
z=Cricket after IPL
then
y-x >> z-w
1992 deserves a post. I promise I shall come up with one soon :-)
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