| He opined
that cricketers, especially Indians over the
past few weeks have been seen more on stage
dancing and singing than in the nets batting
and bowling. Maybe that explains why India
danced to the tunes of South Africa. The Indians,
as Gavaskar said, were more excited with the
IPL than anything else and were going from
city to city promoting their franchises along
with their superstar brand ambassadors - movie
stars! Though this is a harsh reflection on
the commitment of our cricketers one cannot
help but see the lighter side of this.
From mid- March it seems as though page
3 and the sports page have been combined
to produce a new hybrid in most newspapers,
with players and actors often sharing and
even swapping places. The image of SRK atop
a chair to match Ishanth Sharma and that
of a rather down to earth Vijay being surrounded
by Spartan style images of Dhoni and Muralitharan
tells the story that what Gavaskar has said
might be a very strong reaction of a very
hurt mind. But then this is not completely
untrue.
Good or bad, only the days will tell, especially
the five days at the Green Park. But one
cannot deny that this never before seen
extensive amalgam of films and cricket has
brought in a lot of fodder for the media
and huge, even unimaginable amounts of money
to many people, young and old, playing and
coaching and maybe watching. So we have
cricketers who are camera savvy and film
stars who can throw some very educated comments
on the game. What next?
|
