The Indian Premier League is back again, and has so far been controversy free after the towel-gate revelation last year. All said about Sreesanth, I miss the dancing, crying, slapping and all the other histrionics he did, in the name of fast bowling. Anyways, like every year, the IPL has managed to catch the eye of the cricket crazy Indian audience, in more ways than one.
1. The Theme Song : How they do it, I have no idea. But they sure do it really well. My friends who are into marketing can really learn from the IPL. They make the most irritating songs (Read Jumping Jhapang and Come on, Bulava Aaya hai) and even more moronic dance videos with Sidhu twirling his moustache and Jadeja leaning on cheerleaders, and yet their songs are on everyone's lips. Including Yours truly. Hats off on this one.
2. The Advertisements : I am still not over the " Mujhe bhi jaana hai, papa" ad from last year by SBI home loans and this year, we have Hema Malini selling Kent water purifiers with RO and UV technology, in her bland voice which puts you off to sleep. To her credit, they are better than the election ads of the Congress with our dear RaGa striking random poses, or the 10000 BJP ads. Ab Ki Baar, Aur Mat Pakao Yaar.
3. The One who never shuts up : Undoubtedly, he is the Salman Khan of the commentary box. Like him, he never makes sense, says awesome catch-phrases and anecdotes and yes, dances like a buffoon who has had to hold his pee for quite a long time. However, he is funny at times, and does run a one man show. People like listening to him, and I guess he is here to stay.
4. The Experts : You had wished the world had ended before Sachin Tendulkar retired. But now, you wish the world had ended before Shoaib Akhtar (of the fake accent) was hired as a cricket expert. Ramiz Raza is biased, Ravi Shastri is cliched, yes but even they at least tried to talk cricket, rather than calling fellow commentators tharki. Ajay Jadeja, Chetan Sharma and Kiran More, the less said the better. Only, lone ranger Harsha Bhogle holds fort. We miss you Sunny Sir. You could have praised Tendulkar for sitting in the Mumbai dug out and be the total team man, and spared us this bull shit.
5. The Hindi Commentary : The fact that they do not talk sense, is something that is very well known. But this year, simple reporting of facts too, is beyond them. Very clearly, they look into the TV monitor while speaking. One can forgive innocent enthusiastic mistakes like " Shaandar shot ek run ke liye", " Hawa mein khel diya hai stadium se bahar, aur ye catch out" but how on earth am I expected to live with " Aur ye fir se 6 run, Oh nahi ye toh pichli gend ka replay dikhaya hai". Sigh.
