IPL-4 is here, opening on a Friday; on a day most of the movies are released in India and elsewhere.
IPL has a lot in common with movies in India. Cricket and Cinema go together like Viv Richards and Nina Gupta. Howsoever far apart they might be, they do make strangely great bed-fellows. And IPL, is the Masaba of this relation ! A cross breed, yet beautiful and highly successful at a very young age.
Masaba...aah !
A lot of people, Purists, Poms and pushy Aussies have denounced IPL as ‘Not Cricket’.
Michel Holding, one of my childhood favorites declared, “T-20 is not Cricket and Keiron Pollard is not a Cricketer”.
Those who have not got a bite in, blame IPL for ‘Crass Commercialization’ of the ‘Once Beautiful’ game.
Pakistani Cricketers declare they don’t care about IPL and then secretly curse Ijaz Butt.
BCCI declares IPL as clean because they have rid IPL of the corrupting influence of evil Lalit Modi.
But let people heap abuses and denigrate IPL. Let them damn it. Let them condemn it. Let them do anything except ‘ban’ it. That is something nobody will do. Thankfully, because IPL is a ‘Goose that lays Platinum Eggs’. Gold is passe !
It is simple. I love IPL. I always like to give 5 reasons for anything and everything. But when it comes to IPL, I have so many reasons to love IPL, I might run out of space on the web. So I will stick to 11; one each for every team and one for Lalit Modi.
I Love IPL because…
1] I can sleep tight on the previous night of IPL Final. I couldn’t on 1 April 2011 night.
2] Whoever wins the IPL Final, I can celebrate. An Indian team will be winning. If it is Delhi, happy for Viru. If KKR wins, great because Pathan is there. If Mumbai Indians win, Thank You Sachin.
3] My wife and daughter cope up with shorter matches. They thought I was on another planet during the entire World Cup campaign.
4] My temper remains fine even in the worst of situations during IPL. Ashish Nehra can’t ruffle me and I adore Munaf Patel. Piyush Chawla is such a wonderful prodigy after all. And Rahul Dravid can’t draw a match.
5] I don’t have to worry about Sachin’s 100th International Century and then his 50th ODI Century and then his 102 Century and then his 19000 runs in ODIs and 15000 runs in Test Cricket and so on…
6] 92 runs needed of 60 balls doesn’t send my heart rate soaring to 184 in 60 seconds. It remains down, almost like Munaf Patel’s speed. Nothing can change it.
7] Nobody will dare to drop Yusuf Pathan to accommodate Nohit Sharma / Ravindra Jadeja in the team.
8] Ravindra Jadeja can’t lose a match for India, howsoever hard he might try.
9] Suresh Raina will not be bothered by short pitched bowling.
10] Shane Warne can continue to play; perhaps till we celebrate the Silver Jubilee of IPL.
11] And most importantly, Billy Bowden can’t beat India !
And one for the Glamor !
How can we ignore the Glamor quotient ? How can we ignore Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and her sister, SRK, Deepkia and her latest boyfriend and Kingfisher ? And of course the parties and Page-3 crowd and Fake IPL Player ? IPL is GLICKET [Glamor + Cricket]
Hail IPL; the greatest show on Earth !
Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans
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