Recently the second edition of IPL took off in South Africa and I have been religiously following the travails of the Mumbai Indians who have moved on from being the early title favorites to being second to the worst. Although I have followed most of their matches on cricinfo, I did get to watch a few matches live. The fierce on-field battles were accompanied by a bunch of mediocre ex-cricketer now turned commentators going way way over the top to praise their IPL bosses and to find more and more imaginative ways to mention the tournament sponsors.
The genius who thought that a Six should be called a "DLF Maximum" should be forced to face a ferocious Lasith Malinga without a bat, helmet, shoes or other kind of protection. This along with the ironically named "Citi - Moment of Success" (coming from a Bank that is desperately surviving on Government Bail-out money) and the strategic Time-out (strategic only for the sponsors) got me thinking about how things could get worse from next year onwards.
Imagine a cricket tournament with a sponsored name for every conceivable delivery, shot or run scored. Sample this commentary. Shane Warne takes a couple of steps and bowls a mesmerizing "Google googly". Sachin counters this by fetching the delivery from outside off, "Flickr flicks" down to "Hanes LongLeg" fielder and scampers thru for a "Shaadi.Com Single".
The Umpire who's dressed up in a dazzling white coat sponsored by "Surf Excel" signals the end of a "Kingfisher 6 Pack Over" by breaking into a Calypso dance with the West Indian players. Adam Gilchrist gets on strike and is clean bowled first ball. As he walks back in gloom, a Mirinda commerical starts playing, "Mirinda Bowled - Jor Ka Jhatka Dheere se Lage". Dravid who walks in next, is unfortunate to get out LBW to the next ball and is promptly followed by a commercial of "Lux - Fair n Lovely Legs" featuring the King Khan himself. Not to be outdone the next batsman plays a couple of defensive strokes before hitting straight into the hands of the bowler. This time the commercial that plays features a man and his unshakeable shadow with the tagline, "Caught - Yeh Fevicol Ka Majbut Jod Hai".
The match itself goes down to the wire and Sachin wins it for Mumbai. Sachin is unanimously declared the "Complan Boy" and is presented with a mug full of refreshing chocolate milk by Kapil Dev himself. Just before the camera zooms out, Kapil and Sachin smile into the camera and say "I am a Complan Boy".
With all these "sponsored" changes, the cash registers will tingle all the way for Mr. Modi and co. And soon they will be swimming in a pool of money like Uncle Scrooge. :)
The genius who thought that a Six should be called a "DLF Maximum" should be forced to face a ferocious Lasith Malinga without a bat, helmet, shoes or other kind of protection. This along with the ironically named "Citi - Moment of Success" (coming from a Bank that is desperately surviving on Government Bail-out money) and the strategic Time-out (strategic only for the sponsors) got me thinking about how things could get worse from next year onwards.
Imagine a cricket tournament with a sponsored name for every conceivable delivery, shot or run scored. Sample this commentary. Shane Warne takes a couple of steps and bowls a mesmerizing "Google googly". Sachin counters this by fetching the delivery from outside off, "Flickr flicks" down to "Hanes LongLeg" fielder and scampers thru for a "Shaadi.Com Single".
The Umpire who's dressed up in a dazzling white coat sponsored by "Surf Excel" signals the end of a "Kingfisher 6 Pack Over" by breaking into a Calypso dance with the West Indian players. Adam Gilchrist gets on strike and is clean bowled first ball. As he walks back in gloom, a Mirinda commerical starts playing, "Mirinda Bowled - Jor Ka Jhatka Dheere se Lage". Dravid who walks in next, is unfortunate to get out LBW to the next ball and is promptly followed by a commercial of "Lux - Fair n Lovely Legs" featuring the King Khan himself. Not to be outdone the next batsman plays a couple of defensive strokes before hitting straight into the hands of the bowler. This time the commercial that plays features a man and his unshakeable shadow with the tagline, "Caught - Yeh Fevicol Ka Majbut Jod Hai".
The match itself goes down to the wire and Sachin wins it for Mumbai. Sachin is unanimously declared the "Complan Boy" and is presented with a mug full of refreshing chocolate milk by Kapil Dev himself. Just before the camera zooms out, Kapil and Sachin smile into the camera and say "I am a Complan Boy".
With all these "sponsored" changes, the cash registers will tingle all the way for Mr. Modi and co. And soon they will be swimming in a pool of money like Uncle Scrooge. :)
4 comments:
"forced to face a ferocious Lasith Malinga without a bat, helmet, shoes or other kind of protection."
This is Hillarious !
thanks Mayur
Sourabh, thoroughly enjoyed it !!
thanks Big Bro
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