The Commercialization of Cricket

"Ati Sarvatra Varjitey" - This is one of the first ever Sanskrit phrases I ever heard, and it totally applies to all aspects of life. I just read a good post by Shirin on her blog and thought of adding some thoughts of my own.

One doesn't need to be a genius to understand that Cricket today has changed, and not every change has been for the best! The author of the post I was referring to hit the nail on the head when she mentioned that people shouldn't start calling a SIX, a DLFer, but it happened during the match between Delhi Daredevils and KKR. It was unbelievable. I had just read the post a few hours back on the above mentioned link and here I was watching a match in which a SIX wasn't called a SIX, not once! It was called a DLF maximum! WTF?

Commercialization of Cricket is going to hurt the game very badly, the quality of what one see's will indeed be affected adversely. In terms of broadcasting, SET MAX literally destroyed the broadcasting fun when they brought on Ruby Bhatia a few years back, and quickly replaced her after she goofed up completely. Then Mandira was unleashed upon this world. I have no issues with her, she's just doing her job. But the problem is, it started a downward trend.
There are now so many channels on air that they've run out of experts. They bring in any unheard of player and call him an expert. Each channel has it's Arun Lal and Maninder Singh [no one I know can remember any significant on-field contribution that they ever made].

Something about TIMES NOW - They have a guy called Boria Muzumdar, who originally started ramming his mouth of on air under the tag of "Cricket historian"! Yeah, right! I know a couple of guys in my college who could quote any score of any match played since they were born, only they haven't figured out a fancy title for themselves and haven't been hired by a channel, yet!
Anyways, now, he is a "Cricket Expert"! We have, hold your breath, Arbaaz Khan, that's right, Arbaaz Khan... the man who starred in blockbusters[?] like "Qayamat" and his views are taken on Sachin Tendulkar's innings and Shane Warne's captaincy.

CNN IBN - These guys at least don't pretend to be serious about their IPL coverage, their show is titled CRICKET TAINMENT. With Cyrus Broacha cracking his, mostly lame joke brand of humor. Anyways, so now we have Cyrus, Arbaaz, Sameer Kocchar and the guy who lost out on Indian Idol, Mayang Chang - covering the IPL. W G Grace, may your soul rest in peace!

The point that the "Mandira" supporters make is, that it sells! Well my friends, it sells because it's what the fools running these channels decide to show us. ESPN STAR is like the shining beacon for us Cricket lovers, they too have had to change a bit because of the ensuing madness that rival channels have started. But look at the people they have in their fold, Sunil Gavaskar, Wasim Akram, Harsha Bhogle, Alan Wilkins - all exceptional commentators and people who can claim to say they know what they are talking about.

I saw this match yesterday in the IPL, where Ranjit Fernando was on air and he delivered this piece of idiotic commentary -

[Batsman slog sweeps... mistimes]

Ranjit - Oh, that has been savagely hit!

[The ball lands just outside the 30 yard circle, talk about savagely hit shots]

Ranjit - He didn't really get too much bat on it.

[WTF]

How the hell did a savagely hit shot, not have too much bat on it?

Anyways there are far worse commentators on air than Ranjit Fernando, but i was just citing an example that came to mind. Another incident involving Mayan Chang comes to mind, the guy is so poor in his Cricket knowledge that he at times forgets team names! Why the hell is he covering a cricket match?
I have nothing against any of the individuals who are named in this post, they're all doing what they've been paid to do, but the point is why, oh why have they been hired?
To a cricket lover who has seen the glory days of Cricket coverage, when Geoff Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar used to deliver brilliant and exciting commentary, for the people who have heard Tony Greg delivering lines like "This little man is the closest thing to Bradman there's ever been" - it's close to torture to watch the insanity that is on AIR. Watching Danny Morrison near the boundary rope with a cheerleader sitting on his lap was utterly distasteful.

Another thing is that, player's who haven't done any great deed in their career are incapable of truly understanding greatness or actually criticizing stupidity.

Case in point - when Buchanan came out with his 4 captain theory, Gavaskar took him on with a scathing attack! Well, now it's clear why Sunil Gavaskar used such strong words to criticize an idea which is fundamentally flawed. KKR is at the bottom of the table and don't look like they're gonna get up at all!

At that time I remember, a pathetic loser of a former cricketer on a news channel saying, "T20 is a game of constant innovation, Gavaskar may be a great batsman, but i think we should accept that the past generation cricketers cannot accept such innovation easily!"
That dimwit didn't realize that Gavaskar was part of the ICC Technical committee which allowed ideas like Free Hits and Bowl Outs to enter the cricketing world. There are times when even these greats make mistakes, no one is perfect. But what sucks is to watch mediocre people act as if they are great experts in the field.


Coming back to the Sanskrit phrase I quoted at the start, it's a fact that there's too much of commercialization taking place in cricket and borrowing a line from Shirin's article, it'll be the death of cricket the day a wicket is no longer called a wicket and instead called a "Citi moment of success"!