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Strap in: here comes the circus
By Will 4 months ago, 19 Comments »
We work alongside other journalists every day at our shiny ESPN towers, and I was chatting to a football scribe the other day about the IPL. He admitted to be “gagging” for the start, itching to witness what he considers to be a “mini World Cup”. It probably says rather a lot that he, who only has a passing interest in my sport, is more curious about the forthcoming IPL than I am.
Well, that’s not strictly accurate. I am definitely curious about it all - I just hate and loath the premise and the impact it will inevitably have. Cricket’s landscape has changed forever. But the prospect of watching Ricky Ponting and Ishant Sharma representing the same team - the Kolkata Knight Riders! - captained by Sourav Ganguly, is too ridiculous and balmy not to slap my thighs like a baboon and yelp “bring it on”. It’s a brilliant farce, succinctly described by The Sunday Telegraph’s Scyld Berry:
The owner of Kolkata Knight Riders is Shah Rukh Khan, as famous as any Indian film star. Their main sponsor is Nokia. Their coach is John Buchanan, simply the most successful coach ever in international cricket, as he was Australia’s last. Their opening batsman is Chris Gayle, the man reviving West Indian cricket, with a style of hair and cricket to rival Symonds; their wicketkeeper/batsman is Brendon McCullum, the nearest New Zealand come to a star cricketer; and Ponting is a useful batsman. Ganguly said: “I was personally present at the auction. Every franchise had an amount of $5 million to spend as a maximum, and there is a restriction of eight overseas players in each franchise, and you can play only four at a time. We have to have four Indian under-21 players, two under-19s, and four local players from our catchment area.”
My team will be the Kolkata Knight Riders - yes, because I can hear the twangy theme tune of the coolest TV programme ever made providing another absurd backdrop to the quacky-wacky madness of the whole charade. What odds KITT might appear to present the winners - and I use that term loosely - with a replica Pontiac Trans Am?
The tournament hasn’t even begun but already there are major concerns surrounding its coverage, though they have eased slightly today. The IPL has prevented websites from covering the tournament from the ground itself - they will not provide accrediation to journalists representing new media - and applied restrictions to the sale/rights of photos. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot. A boycott by at least one major media group surely beckons. Not the ideal start, but somehow appropriate.
19 Comments »