We all constantly debate on whether IPL is real cricket, or will it destroy the cricket that we all grew up on. But one fact is indisputable. It has changed the financial structure of cricket into a major international sporting tournament, that will in time compete with football. And it is very very entertaining.
\nSo is the rest of the world hating that India is the nation that is the leader. Is the rest of the world unable to get off it’s outdated colonial attitudes ? It’s time for the world to realize that this really is Asia’s century. Not an Asia’s century that panders to the West, but an Asia’s century where Asian consumers rule the Media World.
\nPlease read the following article that appeared in a very responsible South African newspaper. A more racist point of view I have not read for a long long time.
\nhttp:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/opinion\/columnists\/article346952.ece
\nAnd if you wish to read the text here, just read on….<\/p>\n
\nBollywood won’t play in Bloem
\nWorld will realise that IPL is a caricature of real cricket
\nMar 9, 2010 10:56 PM | By Alex Parker
\nAlex Parker: There’s no avoiding it. If the cricket world is discussing whether two new teams are worth a billion dollars, and whether the new time-out system is better than the old one, it can only mean that Lalit Modi’s Moolah Express has rolled into town. Yup, it’s time for the IPL.
\nIt’s a time of year I dread, because I just cannot summon the energy to give half a hoot about a tournament that is heavy on promise and light on entertainment.
\nLast year, I recall, it was easy to be attracted to the fuss. There was noise and excitement and a great many dancing girls and loud music. This is fun, I thought. But then I watched the cricket and it was, generally, awful.
\nIt’s also interminable, dragging on and on, with endless same-same showdowns between teams I don’t care about, owned by Bollywood stars whose acting I find silly, and industrialists for whose companies I feel nothing. Does it really take seven weeks to establish which is the best of eight teams? When there’s advertising to be sold, it certainly does.
\nStill the good news is this: Despite the IPL’s protestations about it being a huge international contest, I suspect over the years it’ll fade away somewhat and become a little bit like World Series Baseball. It may have international ambitions, but it is parochial in its nature.
\nThe limit on international players in the teams is four, which means much of the IPL is made up of middling-to-good journeymen Indian cricketers. That’s great in India, but after a while, when the rest of the world has worked out that beneath the noise this is still cricket – albeit a grotesque caricature, people will realise that what they’re watching isn’t that great.
\nTake away the fripperies – the music and the cheap, plastic Bollywood glamour – and what you’re looking at is not much different to county cricket, which is made up of a few top-class foreign and local Test players, some Kolpaks and middling-to-good journeymen English cricketers.
\nAnd not too many people in, say, Bloemfontein, tune into that.
\nThat’s why the music is quite so loud, and the dancing girls quite so naked. That’s why there are time-outs, and that’s why the camera is on some dude in tight jeans and dodgy sunglasses called Shah Rukh Khan. It’s because the cricket is so mindless, with its “DLF maximums”, its short boundaries and its flat wickets.
\nAnd, you know, it’s really fine. I don’t begrudge it. It’s great that cricket is so huge in India. People overseas will watch it in the years to come, but I think not in the numbers Mr Modi would like.
\nWhile the English Premier League is clearly his inspiration, he is being held back by provincialism. The reason everybody watches English soccer is because the teams are packed with the best players in the world – not just four per team, but 11 per team. It’s as good as it is possible to be.
\nAnd they don’t play dumbed-down soccer either. That’s why the IPL and the Premier League are in fact worlds apart, and eventually people will realise it. The tournament is to be broadcast free-to-air in the UK, on ITV. Those viewership figures will tell a tale, I’m sure.
\nBack home, I’m going to be watching some South African provincial cricket over the next few weeks to see what talent is coming up from the provinces.
\nThere’s nothing else on, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We all constantly debate on whether IPL is real cricket, or will it destroy the cricket that we all grew up on. But one fact is indisputable. It has changed the financial structure of cricket into a major international sporting tournament, that will in time compete with football. And it is very very entertaining. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\n