If Gowitrikar and Aamir (Khan of course) are to be believed, pre independence Indians, in a village were offered a tax exepmtion (lagaaan...as they would call it) if they could beat the British Team to a game of cricket. That brings the memories of a scanty clad, bare footed team of Indian Villagers led by an enthusiastic Bhuvan who took their first lessons of cricket to save themselves from "lagaan". As time would have it we have today come a full circle and India, with this whole IPL thing backed by cash rich coffers of BCCI, is ready to become the power centre of world cricket.
Pre 90's era Indians were mostly believed to be medicore people who were good at practically nothing, leave aside handling their domestic issues, corruption, poverty etc etc etc. Sports was a luxury in a country where survival was more important than entertainment. The fondest memories in sports were a 1983 World cup Triumph in Cricket or a few bursts in Hockey or a good run here and there by Milka Singh or PT Usha. But these were by no standards any where near the World Competetive level in sports. India always was a big disappointment at the Olympics or Asian Games. In a country of 1 billion population an Olympic Gold or Asian Games Gold is still cherished.
As for Cricket, it provided India - a nation with billion aspirations some thing to cheer about and something which Indians could relate to in their daily lives. It provided them a sport with which they can relate their happiness and sorrows. India grew.. cricket grew, and it soon became a religion in India, followed more religiously than all other religions put together (am I being controversial....naaaah). It was a uniting force in a nation where language, culture and traditions change every 50 kms.
Today India is a growth story and the world is turning to India and eveyone wants to be a part of this success story. The population which was or is still sometimes considered a bane and a stress on our resources turned to India's advantage and it gave world and India a very big market of consumers who had a big apetite for product and service consumption.
Indian Business has grown in confidence and we can now boast of a Corus or Accellor or Jaguar and Rover . Indian Cricket too has grown in confidence and gained a lot from the booming economy and confidence which is instilled by the overall economic growth and vision of being a global enterprise. Shaken and stirred by Subhash Chandra's rebel ICL T20 league BCCI took a rabit out of its hat by concieving and launching IPL T20, the paud piper in this case being a"Lolita" (Lalit Modi ...who else).
The successfull launch of IPL can be attributed to a strong desire of BCCI to encash a beaming business opportunity backed by a little arrongance somewhere in the ranks to be the control room of world cricket (ICC be damned..). IPL brought forward an opportunity to increase the brand value of already rich and famous Mallaya, Ambani, SRK and Preity. Their buying of a franchise at this stage, when the business prospects are not very clear can very evenly be compared to buying a plot of land in wilderness, anticipating the land to reap rich dividents in future.
All said and done IPL has changed the face of cricket in India and provided much needed reformation of Prime Time Entertainment giving some respite from talent and relaity shows, besides no nonsense news and saas bahu drama's. Much so that now for a three hour game, we have families turning out in big numbers to watch the game (its a different story that the husband cheers for the cheergirls and the wife for the dudes on the field). There are other insignificant changes which IPL has brought in our life. In conversation with my friends some of them have started leaving office early for a 8'o clock match start, while some have improved their sex lifes (well u are awake to watch the last ball six ...till 11'), still some other have been busy writing blogs, discussing, debating and voicing their cricket acumen at the drop of a hat.
The paud piper can't stop grining as the talk of strategies for the next season of IPl are already on. Kudos "Lollita"...
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