Reserved: Not for the Backward but for the Rich.

If you are thinking: “Here comes another post on Reservations”, not quite. I will keep that for later. This is something that struck me while I was watching an advertisement on television. I personally feel that ads are a great way to portray one’s creativity. As with most ads, even the one I was watching had something new to offer. If you actually concentrate and focus on the top right corner, there’s a cricket match on display. What a bonus. An Ad with a game.

Hasn’t the world come full circle. Once upon a time, there used to be cricket matches. Then came television to help cricket reach millions. Then came advertising to help raise revenue to cover cricket more extensively. Here comes the latest: Cricket matches to boost advertising. Yep, Today’s topic of discussion is of course The I.P.L. The IPL, as any cricket fan north of Antarctica knows by now, is the Indian Premier League. It is actually a brilliant concept where anything (absolutely anything) can be marketed, sold, bought, fought, etc as long as some cricket happens (preferably on the side of the screen).

Couple of things went wrong and this great parent killing child was born. Firstly, the concept of 20-20 was introduced and secondly India won the 20-20 World Cup. If these two hadn’t happened, the BCCI would have continued by organizing two or (if need be) three Indo-Pak tours a year to achieve their financial targets. Instead, the IPL was born. At this point, I felt this could lead to something really exciting. Then came the sponsors. They bought the various franchises, bid for players and in the process compiled their squads for the “karma yudh”. Then came the cheerleaders and I was telling myself “Now we are talking”. The team compositions came through and most teams except Bangalore RC (Wasim Jaffer???? who you kidding.) and Rajastan Royals looked competitive.

The D Day came. The first match started with SRK in the middle of the screen. It has been 40 odd matches since and I badly want to know: why the f*** is SRK still in the middle of the screen? I understand he’s bought that team and I also understand that he’s about to lose a lot of money in the process, what I don’t understand is why is the camera still pointing at him? A part of the screen is dedicated to him for showing his emotions/ugly face (depending in how much of a fan you are). As he says in most of his interviews, the press should let him be. Leave him alone for god sakes.

For the initial few matches, cricket took up the rest of the screen. Then came the latest in the world of advertising: Shrinking the screen to fit in ads (with sound) during the match. I understand that money is the most important thing here but then it shouldn’t be so blatantly obvious. Having said all this, the cricket has been AMAZING. One would be more appreciative If only he/she could: 1. Take their eyes off the bright sponsor logos on the side of the screen demanding one’s attention 2. Hear the commentary on top of the sounds that accompany the ad and 3. SRK/ pretty zinta ( commentators changed her name recently) get off screen more often. In this world of ‘Customer Satisfaction above all else’, it is such an irony that one needs to be content watching cricket on the side of the screen with a lot of unwanted faces/ads on a paid private channel. Well, things need to change and quick.

I rest my case assuming that as it is just the beginning, these things will be set right in the coming years. Hopefully. To conclude, I hope against hope that either SRK gets bored of it and moves on or I get bored of it and move on.