New and different IPL

IPL is so exciting that I have to write a column or two every year. Is it Indian Premier League or is it Injured and Pensioners League? In any case, what’s in a name? So, move on. This year’s tournament is really different. Did I hear some sniggering? You skeptical guys. What? The use of word "guys" is sexist? Are there any women reading this? I am Surprised and honoured.

Please read on to understand the difference, the novelty.

The best news from IPL was delivered even before the first ball was bowled. The news was delivered in the homes of the Kingfisher employees, who will get 2 months of arrears now. A Diwali before Diwali. Please applaud such humanitarian gesture from a team owner. The employees are now keenly waiting for the F1 to come up.

In other news before the games started, there was a brand new title sponsor. Pepsi. We were all excited as we like Pepsi more than DLF. There is no controversy about who Pepsi sent free samples to. Free flats and land gets political. So, a drink is fine. Though, after the games started we were told that Pepsi has been robbed of the key branding of the “maximums”. It was a rude surprise to us that it is going to be Yes Bank Maximum. And all of a sudden we wanted DLF maximum back. The wheel just turned back. With the new title sponsor we also have a set of new stumps. Yay!

Then there is a new channel broadcasting the tournament. Sony Six. Nothing new about the commentary or analysis or even technology except for the sixes tracker. The most exciting thing is that Six HD feed has not started accepting advertising. What a relief. Pure cricket. We don’t have to suffer Havell’s “social message” advertising every 15 minutes. Thank God for such mercy.

The new channel also brought in some new promotional advertising. The song goes, Jhampak, Jhampak, Jhamping, Jhapang. No discussion on how you like it or not over here. But, I believe that Farah khan was made to lose weight for the promos. This is good news for all the viewers of reality shows, which is her key profession ever since that disaster called, “Tees Maar Khan” was unleashed on us. What is more interesting is that the channel has got an adult film actress to do some jhatkas for the “extra innings” on this number. So, we now know who the target audience is, for the “extra innings”. And there is the new look Sameer Kochhar who is back after a stint in BALH (bade acche lagte hain) and brushing his acting skills. Though jury is still out as to which is his more ridiculed role.

We have a new team as well. Hyderabad sunrisers. Though the captain is the same, their jersey is competing for the worst jersey of the tournament. Wonder how Puma expects to sell any. We will reserve our comments and making fun of them as they won a rare match in Hyderabad, much to the surprise of even the local crowd. Even the local crowd has given up on this team as they didn’t turn up to watch the match. The television audiences are highly disappointed as they are missing the very charming Gayatri Reddy.

On a more serious note, there is a new brand partner for the IPL as well. Star India. Isn’t Star supposed to be a competition to Sony? Official sanction provided to ambush marketing? Or is it that Star realized that Star Plus lost more viewers during last year’s IPL compared to Sony and therefore it is important to leverage this most important property in Indian television history? Time will tell us the details of the strategy.

Talking about players, MI did a coup by picking up Ponting and even making him the captain. The entire nation went crazy about Pondulkar and all the excitement of the two opening the batting together. Two of them having a combined International run tally of over 60,000 and combined age of 77 is the most exciting thing that can happen to the cricket crazy nation. In other news, after first two games of MI, Glen Maxwell is the most envied person in this planet. You get a million dollars for doing nothing. Everyone is willing to give their left arm to trade places with Glen Maxwell.

The Pensioners League reached new heights this year with a 41 year old Gilly captaining a fledgling team. Atleast 2 players, Narine and Jadeja, have got a new haircut. 4 teams got new captains. And all these boring small changes happened. Whilst Rahul Dravid taught Rohit Sharma a lesson or two by proving that class is permanent.

In the meanwhile, bias also reached new high. Sri Lankan players were not allowed to play in Chennai for political reasons. The venue was not changed unlike the previous year when Hyderabad was dropped as a venue due to political strife.

Just before I end my piece, this year 2 new things that IPL has taught me. Firstly, Jaundice is not a serious ailment. Secondly, going by the jewellery worn by the West Indies players, I reckon that Gold is cheap in that part of the world.

I want to end my piece by saying that please comment and add all the points that I may have missed about what’s new in this IPL.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.
PPS: The opinions here are mine only. They do not pertain to any organisation or sponsor.