Cricket heading into top gear with World Cup, IPL
In the next few months, the cricketing season will be peaking into the 2011 World Cup for which India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would be hosting as many as 42 matches in the run up to the four quarterfinals, semifinals and the Final. And, immediately after that will follow the first edition of IPL post its mascot Lalit Modi. This means 43 days of world cup cricket and six days later 45 days of IPL — a total of 88 days of high octane cricket bonanza for the viewers.
Already, television channels are busy planning to adjust to a low profile in the silly season of the soap dish (that’s what they call every sporting event that draws away viewers from the regular shows) as they know eyeballs and resultant ad revenue will fall into the ESPN-Star bouquet for the Cup playing season and to Max for the IPL.
Even KBC, the biggest grosser prior to this elongated cricket season, would be folding up by the second week of December, having aired all its 36 episodes, and paving the way for the World Cup in February.
While IPL IV will be in focus for hawkish assessees who would be following it with a keen eye to see if Modi’s baby will fare as well on popular charts without him and his novel packaging; whether sans the high-priced late-night parties the hysteria around the league would be the same; and whether in the absence of the highly popular Rajasthan Royals led by the charismatic Shane Warne, the draws will still be a success.
IPL IV, for all practical purposes, will be a low profile affair, which would all but kill this sportainment baby known more for its cheerleaders, its outrageous and non-stop partying, its celebrity value and its entertainment quotient, than for any kind of serious cricket.
The BCCI will, of course, be on an overdrive to show Lalit Modi how it can do without him and do well at that. And for this, some kind of popular formatting will still be done. However, to have IPL without RR would be strange as that was the team with the highest star value if, that is, you could keep apart the lure value of Tendulkar and Dhoni which cascades down to their respective teams.
This is a crucial year for this domestic league which changed the face of cricket through Lalit Modi’s revolutionary ideas even though he may have fallen by the wayside now due to the alleged financial irregularities hounding him. For one, Australia has gone into top gear to announce its very own domestic league which Cricket Australia has promised would be faster, bigger and more popular than IPL. The BCCI would have to contend with that as there are only as many days in a year to play cricket and IPL itself is a poacher of the futures tour programme that shapes the annual cricket season globally.
Coming to the World Cup, the formatting and match allocation has been done very carefully, so as to avoid any India-Pakistan skirmish over the issue. For starters, Pakistan, from where the World Cup matches had to be pulled out due to the terror situation there, will not be playing a single match on Indian territory all through the group matches and if all goes per plan, even for the quarterfinals and the semifinals, if they were to qualify for that stage, their ties may fall in either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Only, in the scenario of the team qualifying for the Final will they be definitely in Mumbai and that would be a moment to watch, especially if it turns out to be a clash with India.
However, going by the way the Pakistani team has been dogged by match-mixing-mafia controversy, its performance will definitely be blunted, what with its top bowlers and pinch hitters not being in the 2011 team and even their promising wicket-keeper all rounder Zulqarnain Haider having announced his premature retirement over an alleged bookies threat to him and his family.
As for India, it is this time in an easy group in which it is slotted to play just six matches up to the quarterfinals, facing teams like Bangladesh, The Netherlands Ireland, England, South Africa and West Indies. It needs to win four matches in this stage to go through to the quarters. The way the team is poised now, with Bhajji too making an amazing dent with the bat, Sehwag being in fine form, Gambhir collecting himself and Tendulkar waiting with bated breath for his swan song, only India can defeat India in 2011. So get set!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, November 21, 2010
Already, television channels are busy planning to adjust to a low profile in the silly season of the soap dish (that’s what they call every sporting event that draws away viewers from the regular shows) as they know eyeballs and resultant ad revenue will fall into the ESPN-Star bouquet for the Cup playing season and to Max for the IPL.
Even KBC, the biggest grosser prior to this elongated cricket season, would be folding up by the second week of December, having aired all its 36 episodes, and paving the way for the World Cup in February.
While IPL IV will be in focus for hawkish assessees who would be following it with a keen eye to see if Modi’s baby will fare as well on popular charts without him and his novel packaging; whether sans the high-priced late-night parties the hysteria around the league would be the same; and whether in the absence of the highly popular Rajasthan Royals led by the charismatic Shane Warne, the draws will still be a success.
IPL IV, for all practical purposes, will be a low profile affair, which would all but kill this sportainment baby known more for its cheerleaders, its outrageous and non-stop partying, its celebrity value and its entertainment quotient, than for any kind of serious cricket.
The BCCI will, of course, be on an overdrive to show Lalit Modi how it can do without him and do well at that. And for this, some kind of popular formatting will still be done. However, to have IPL without RR would be strange as that was the team with the highest star value if, that is, you could keep apart the lure value of Tendulkar and Dhoni which cascades down to their respective teams.
This is a crucial year for this domestic league which changed the face of cricket through Lalit Modi’s revolutionary ideas even though he may have fallen by the wayside now due to the alleged financial irregularities hounding him. For one, Australia has gone into top gear to announce its very own domestic league which Cricket Australia has promised would be faster, bigger and more popular than IPL. The BCCI would have to contend with that as there are only as many days in a year to play cricket and IPL itself is a poacher of the futures tour programme that shapes the annual cricket season globally.
Coming to the World Cup, the formatting and match allocation has been done very carefully, so as to avoid any India-Pakistan skirmish over the issue. For starters, Pakistan, from where the World Cup matches had to be pulled out due to the terror situation there, will not be playing a single match on Indian territory all through the group matches and if all goes per plan, even for the quarterfinals and the semifinals, if they were to qualify for that stage, their ties may fall in either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Only, in the scenario of the team qualifying for the Final will they be definitely in Mumbai and that would be a moment to watch, especially if it turns out to be a clash with India.
However, going by the way the Pakistani team has been dogged by match-mixing-mafia controversy, its performance will definitely be blunted, what with its top bowlers and pinch hitters not being in the 2011 team and even their promising wicket-keeper all rounder Zulqarnain Haider having announced his premature retirement over an alleged bookies threat to him and his family.
As for India, it is this time in an easy group in which it is slotted to play just six matches up to the quarterfinals, facing teams like Bangladesh, The Netherlands Ireland, England, South Africa and West Indies. It needs to win four matches in this stage to go through to the quarters. The way the team is poised now, with Bhajji too making an amazing dent with the bat, Sehwag being in fine form, Gambhir collecting himself and Tendulkar waiting with bated breath for his swan song, only India can defeat India in 2011. So get set!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, November 21, 2010
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