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6/11/08

IPL-A magic not a match


Decades back when Sachin hit his first boundary in Lords inaugurating his splendid career, it was another feather to nationalism. The dozens boundaries Indian cricketers hit during IPL, changed and brought in new equations and alliances, both in sports and in nationalism. What does money-driven matches like IPL mean to us would be a million dollar question.When MS Dhoni’s Team-India won the Twenty Twenty World Cup, cricket fans cheered in one voice for Dhoni’s kids. But the same, cheering for Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals, against Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings, would appear slightly bizarre, though the truth. It was as if the history of fights between Indians & Kangaroos made into perspective. Kudos to sportsmanship, hardly anyone seemed mindful of Shane Warne who always played provoking tricks against Indian players sending them off to pavilion.The fights Indian cricket board fought with Australian and International Cricket Board seeking justice against Australians ‘inside pitch behaviors’ seemed centuries back. The age old cricket=nationalism equation got explicitly subverted bringing in new global and regional equations.

Apparently in the IPL final match half of the Indian fans’ hearts were beating for Warne and his time. That’s the magic IPL has played. It took cricket beyond nationalism. To the Rajasthan fans Warne was not an Australian but their team’s super captain. Interestingly the IPL 20 cricket super captain is not DHONI who brought the first twenty cup to India, but Warne an Australian- may be one of the teams Indians keeps grudge against next to Pakistan.This is the IPL effect; it has shaken the loyalties of the fans putting them in dilemma . Yes in IPL it was true, it was divided by team and united by kingfisher!


Looking at the way brands are being advertised in IPL it is visible that the whole game is divided by teams and united by King Fisher. Malliya has again let the card of surrogate advertisements play a major role in his product promotional activities. Held at a time when hot discussions on surrogate advertisements happening inside advertisement board, the team name royal challenger is bound to takes one’s imagination far beyond that very name. Kingfisher unites not just a team, or just those who fly but those who pub too!Hardly ever before individual as brand (SRK, Malliya, Preeti) was advertised through a game to this degree. Social media advertisements were not in the back seat. The number of times an Orkuter got I-poked with team support pop ups justifies this. The amount of crores flowed through TV commercials would definitely be greater than all the earlier times put together.


In short IPL was not just a match, a magic!

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