The latest installment of the IPL is a week old as I write this, and we Indians haven't even had the time to gloat over a famous World Cup win. I have yet to watch a full game and the credit (of course I'm being sarcastic) goes to some of our favorite commentators, all back after being rested for the World Cup. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan says, "Oh yes! Happy to be back. Had to keep myself fit for this one. That's why I opted out of the World Cup sponsored by Money Gram International, Reliance Communications, Castrol, ESPN Star ....... ", all this hoping that at least a few of the brands would pay him a few Rupees for mentioning their names on live television. It's hard enough for cricket fans, having to many times miss the first and last ball of an over because of a commercial break and now we have these dimwits at the mercy of advertisers playing out the audio versions of the commercials almost every alternate ball. LS can be excused because that's probably as close as he'll get to featuring in a TV commercial.
Navjot Singh Sidhu's exuberance at the pre and post match shows for the WC on Star Cricket either caught the IPL eye or he threatened to stab someone with a cricket stump if he was left out. I pity Sanath Jayasurya who as it is looks like a character in those old "Caught in the wrong job?" Monster Jobs adverts. What a contrast to the on-field Sanath. A tweet I saw posted by someone last week truly summed up Sidhu's domination of events in the Set Max studio, "After five dot balls, Sidhu takes a single and retains the strike".
And how can we forget Arun? Some of my friends like to call him Arun LOL. For those of you who don't know him, I cannot help but think how lucky you should feel. Ignorance in this case is truly bliss. Then there is also Danny Morrison and I have to say he's as bad a commentator as the rest, repeatedly indulging in the advert hungama albeit with a Kiwi accent. I wanted some alternate commentary and I happened to come across Pitch Invasion and unfortunately I was still left disappointed. They seem to have only three people on the team now (2 Tamils and a Bengali guy, so quite a few Tamil PJs) but their tweets seem to suggest they'll get more firepower added. If you can't be bothered to check, I'll keep an eye on developments and let you people know if it's as funny as we already get on TV.
Even with all the comic relief, the usual buzz around the IPL is missing. I confirmed this fact when a certain Santhakumaran Sreesanth (check out his latest hairstyle here), picked up a wicket in his first over, in front of his home crowd and didn't leave his team mates embarrassed with a noisy celebration. In contrast did anyone see his face after the World Cup final? After a terrible spell that almost cost India the game, he had a huge smile on his face at the end which became bigger when he noticed that Harbhajan Singh was crying. "Never mind that those were happy tears," he says, "At least I had to be slapped to start crying. Look at him!"
Oh, and yeah Lalit Modi is missing. If he was around there would have been some corruption allegations and fake money talk flying around. Now that the politicians are back in charge, we still have all that, but unfortunately these men are proven masters at brushing things under the carpet.
In some breaking news, un-related to the IPL, Ashish Nehra announced that he will be hanging up his boots with immediate effect. Wait, there's more. He's opening a bowling academy called 'Spray it like Ashish'. The pitches will be made favorable for bowling, and with 10 stumps instead of three to aim at, at each end. Nehra was quite candid responding to a query regarding his ignorance of the rules of cricket saying, "If batsmen have the luxury of hitting to any part of the ground, we should at least be allowed to bowl all over the pitch". And I'll leave it there on that emphatic note.
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| Mandira after failing the IPL commentary test |
And how can we forget Arun? Some of my friends like to call him Arun LOL. For those of you who don't know him, I cannot help but think how lucky you should feel. Ignorance in this case is truly bliss. Then there is also Danny Morrison and I have to say he's as bad a commentator as the rest, repeatedly indulging in the advert hungama albeit with a Kiwi accent. I wanted some alternate commentary and I happened to come across Pitch Invasion and unfortunately I was still left disappointed. They seem to have only three people on the team now (2 Tamils and a Bengali guy, so quite a few Tamil PJs) but their tweets seem to suggest they'll get more firepower added. If you can't be bothered to check, I'll keep an eye on developments and let you people know if it's as funny as we already get on TV.
Even with all the comic relief, the usual buzz around the IPL is missing. I confirmed this fact when a certain Santhakumaran Sreesanth (check out his latest hairstyle here), picked up a wicket in his first over, in front of his home crowd and didn't leave his team mates embarrassed with a noisy celebration. In contrast did anyone see his face after the World Cup final? After a terrible spell that almost cost India the game, he had a huge smile on his face at the end which became bigger when he noticed that Harbhajan Singh was crying. "Never mind that those were happy tears," he says, "At least I had to be slapped to start crying. Look at him!"
Oh, and yeah Lalit Modi is missing. If he was around there would have been some corruption allegations and fake money talk flying around. Now that the politicians are back in charge, we still have all that, but unfortunately these men are proven masters at brushing things under the carpet.
In some breaking news, un-related to the IPL, Ashish Nehra announced that he will be hanging up his boots with immediate effect. Wait, there's more. He's opening a bowling academy called 'Spray it like Ashish'. The pitches will be made favorable for bowling, and with 10 stumps instead of three to aim at, at each end. Nehra was quite candid responding to a query regarding his ignorance of the rules of cricket saying, "If batsmen have the luxury of hitting to any part of the ground, we should at least be allowed to bowl all over the pitch". And I'll leave it there on that emphatic note.
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