THE CONCEPT of an Indian Premier League (IPL) is interesting. Never before have we had this kind of money and media muscle supporting our teams. Ranji trophy and the state cricket teams that played the domestic circuit were tame affairs that the cricket players had to play in to make their dreams of making it to the national team come true. Only the most devoted fans followed the matches of the state teams and the average fan would have been hard put to name the key state players.
In this scenario has arrived the football style league with world famous players on the rolls. No match has yet been played but the IPL is already a household name. The fact that the players are famous entities, already, has helped generate high interest in it.
For the first time we have the chance to see Ricky Ponting playing alongside Indian national team players with whom he had such an edgy relationship during the recently concluded Test series in Australia. He might also be playing under an Indian captain, in India in front of an overwhelming Indian audience. It is a chance of a lifetime for the fans of the game. But it will also throw up some dilemmas for sure. How do you cheer the team in which Ricky is playing if you still want to boo him for his behavior in the Australia matches? How will Misbah play with his Indian colleagues? How will Shoaib (if he is allowed to play in the IPL) use his deadly skills to bowl out a compatriot in a rival team? Definitely exciting stuff to look forward to but there is this small doubt in the mind.
Since our one-man publicity dynamo, Shah Rukh, is part owner of one team and has taken it upon himself to fashion the team image, one wonders if The Knight Riders will always remain in his shadow. The initial video clips of the team anthem show Sharukh looming large over the whole thing. His desire to promote the team, though understandable, should not go so far that the cricketers end up playing second fiddle to the movie icon.
Premier league teams, the world over, are owned by wealthy individuals mostly from the world of business. This perhaps is a world first where a famous movie star is the main promoter of a team. Preity Zinta is the second name from the glamour world attached with an IPL team (Mohali) but she has played safe so far saying, diplomatically, that a team that has such names as Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and Sangakarra in it does need her to promote it. Nonetheless, she is very much a hands on person with a say in everything from team anthem to team uniforms.
Sharukh on his part is not satisfied with having just one team song so he is already thinking of making more videos. So, what is next? A CD of the top IPL team anthems? Maybe the music channels will start assigning chart spots to these songs. With King Khan at the helm there is no predicting where the IPL is headed.
Then there is the small issue of Vijay Mallya being the owner of another team. Does that mean we can look forward to our cricket hunks baring their six packs for an annual calendar?
Only time and the coming matches will reveal how much of a Bollywood affair does the IPL become but as a fan of the game one hopes this does not become merely a Shahrukh – Priety Zinta starer because then the fear would be that maybe for the IPL, Kal Ho Na Ho.
