Passion - A start

My dad is a big fan of cricket. He used to take leaves to watch important matches. I don’t know whether this passion is inherited from my father or may be my own but I too bunked many classes to watch even test matches. I was getting up at 5 AM in the morning to watch India playing in Australia. I used to watch till 4 am in the morning when India was playing in WestIndies. People used to say “man, this guy is a freak”. I used to think maybe I was a freak but I was not the only one. I was always accompanied by at least five other friends in my IIT hostel. Those were my IIT days where I hardly had 3 hrs classes per day so that was ok. What about now? I am working in a Software Company and have to reach the office by 10:30 but still I was getting up at 3 30 am in the morning to watch India creating history in Newzealand. Man, I am a freak. Yes you heard right I am a crazy fan of cricket but then you find samples like me in India innumerably. India has really all the diversities here whichever you can think of cultures, religions, caste , white, black , coloured you name it. While writing this I recall a caption which I studied in my social studies class “anekatha mein yekatha” meaning “Unity in Diversity”. Yes this caption really suits here because even though India has so many diversities all have this passion about cricket. Yes, It is true Cricket is a religion here.

I want to tell you guys about an incident in my childhood. I was in my 6th standard I think and there was an ODI match going on between India and Pakistan Hero cup final. At that point of time I had no idea what a cover drive is and what is swing and what is off spin. I only knew 4 ,6 and wicket that’s all. It was sunday . For my dad it was a working day but as I said He is a freak like me sorry actually, I was a freak like him so he took leave and stayed home to watch. He was watching in the hall and I was studying in the bed room because I had my half yearly exams in 15 days (I was a studios guy then).I wanted to see that match badly. I requested my dad to let me watch the match. He said he will let me watch only Indian batting and that too only first 15 and last 10 overs of the match. You know I was quiet happy with that because all I wanted to see was just 4’s and 6’s.I always thank my dad to let me watch that match. I would never forget Kanitkar hitting a lofted 4 when India needed 3 runs of 2 balls while chasing 315.

My conclusion from this little incident of my own is that anyone who has only little knowledge about cricket really wants to see is 4’s 6’s and wickets thats all. They want the action but not the two experts in the commentary box arguing about a leg before wicket Or Rahul Dravid playing a perfect square cut Or Mc Grath testing the openers with a perfect line outside the off stump. They don’t want to waste a full day to cricket either, they just want to spend time for entertainment where their day to day work is not impacted. In India where there is an unbound love for cricket where cricket itself is a religion there comes IPL brainchild of Lalit Modi. A perfect match to what a non-hardcore cricket fan really wants. A twenty20 match at 8 pm which brings all the action highlights of cricket in 3 and ½ hrs time. You have your own city team to cheer. You have the cheer girls and bollywood music to entertain when nothing is going on onfield.
IPL was a big success it had to be, the way it was planned is amazing. Everybody knew it was going to be a big success and it was going to create history and indeed it created history.IPL is here to stay. I am happy that I am here when it all got started. I am going to tell my grand children that I was there following the first IPL when it happened proudly.

What about the IPL2? Is it going to bring the same success which brought IPL last year? Is it going to be the same in South Africa? Well, all the questions will be answered in the next few weeks. What my guts say is IPL2 going to be bigger success than IPL last year. Yes there will be some impact of not happening in India but all the games evolve with the experience So, I believe IPL will also evolve in IPL2 and will be a much bigger success than last year.