Hmmm...

I'm alarmed at all the bad press the IPL is getting from their own media. And the status the journalists are affording crack bloggers (cult??) is absolutely disheartening.

Maybe it's because IPL is more than just cricket. Maybe it's because the culture of clubs has not really infiltrated into the psyche of the Indian people yet, the way it's been for soccer in Europe. Maybe the instant success and the crores upon crores of profit allegedly made by the organizers has made some people very unhappy coz it's not being channeled their way. Maybe it's because some of the team owners are glamorous Bollywood stars and the spotlight that's constantly being shone on them (Shah Rukh especially) rather than on the game and players has made cricket professionals and fans very uncomfortable and touchy.

Whatever's the reason, it (the bad press) is keeping IPL in a very visible mode. I'm a firm believer of "No publicity is bad publicity" so this is actually a good thing, except that at the moment it's dragging me down a bit, emotionally speaking. Here I am ...trying to know cricket since I know nothing about it as my country is not a cricket-mad country and I've never been a sports enthusiast, trying to understand the pulse of the game, trying to get into the seriousness of it all... the wins, the losses, the ties. And at the end of the day, I have to read an article that says a crack blogger is possibly IPL 2009's biggest entertainer ...not the game, not the players, not the team owners, not anyone who's connected to the game in a professional way. The attitude in the media treatment of the T20 tournament disappoints me.

However, I also firmly believe that things will get settled after 5 years. I always give anything a chance to get better in 5 years, after which I'll despair and leave if it's still going steadily downhill. I want to see how KKR would develop as a team in 5 years. Will the team outshine Shah Rukh in 5 years or will he still need to babysit it after every loss and cheer for it after every win for it to pick up its spirit. Who will stay on and become the star players that KKR will absolutely not be able to do without (other than Sourav, that is). When the foreign players start being 'sold' to opposite teams at later biddings in the manner of club culture, how will it go with the current passionately-territorial fans in India (after all, Sourav Ganguly's removal from captaincy has elicited such an extreme response).

So many interesting questions and none of the passionate cricket fans who know a whole lot better than I do are asking them. Instead, they're concentrating on momentous issues long past their date of being important to the current game on the field. Decisions have been made and the results are being recorded in real time to be studied for workable future gameplays, guys. Get with the program!

I've been searching the youtube for new clips after the 3rd and 4th game and not finding any. That's weird. The game with RJR (the first tie in the history of IPL) should get a few interviews out of someone, if not Shah Rukh. The only ones I found are on the game itself, which is highly unusual. Has the media settled into a rut after only a week into the IPL 2 tournament, or are the journalists currently focusing very hard on the crack blogger as the fountain of their wisdom? I'd like to advise the media covering IPL to deliberately split itself into two faces: the professional mask that records things as they are and the tabloid mask that constantly chases sensational materials regardless of the reality. It's the only way you guys (and us) can stay sane in this reluctant partnership.

I'm blabbing so much... is my nervousness showing? O God, somehow I wish it were Tuesday morning so that I could look up the result already.