Response to 'IPL'

Venky’s post here got Arunabh to comment – at length. I felt his response might get lost as a comment, hence here it is as a post :

I liked this post so much that I had to read it twice. And I totally agree with whatever you have said to the last word. IPL is nothing but one giant corporate monster that is slowly but steadily going to swallow traditional cricket. Expectedly, people thronged the stadiums in large numbers to watch this ultimate cricketing tamasha. The sad part is that a majority of the audience went there to catch a glimpse of the Preity Zintas and Shahrukh Khans rather than watch the 'Cricketing Gods' in action. Not to forget the omnipresent Vijay Mallya with the dumb Katrina Kaif in tow. As if this was not enough, there were the girls from Washington Redskins gyrating to numbers which made no sense to them. And the capacity crowd leered and cheered!

T20 is silly because you are expected to hit a six off every ball. Batters wield the bat like a sledgehammer throwing all cautions to the winds. A bowler can only hope to bowl a containment line. Warne need not produce a "ball of the century" to snare a wicket. If he's lucky enough, the batsman will be caught in the deep. Otherwise, he is unlucky. Guys like Swapnil Asnodkar, who score runs only via edges and nicks, become instantaneous prodigies. While the real batting greats like Dravid and Kallis are subjected to public humiliation by a man who doesn't even know the C of Cricket.

Once in a while, T20 is understandable. Having a T20 spread over more than a month is only going to kill the traditional but thoroughly enjoyable forms of the game viz. test cricket and the one-dayers. But then, T20 rakes in the moolah and in all probability, is here to stay. Meanwhile, the diehard fans should start following 'Golden moments of World Cricket' on Star Cricket.

By,
Arunabh
(http://fitsoffantasy.blogspot.com)