My evenings during weekends usually involve following news from back home by watching the live broadcasts from news channels such as IBNLive and NDTV. This weekend's news broadcasts really teed me off, for all that was being talked about was IPL Players Auction. There was unrelenting coverage of IPL for two full days.
Did other news cease to happen? Were all the recent scams suddenly resolved? Had the nexus between media, politicians and corporations in India been deconstructed to a conclusion? Did onions start to rain from the sky? Had the naxalites gone on a vacation? Had the weather across the northern plains suddenly turned balmy? No, no, no, no, no, and no. And the issues mentioned above are but a smidgen of what our country is reeling from right now.
One theme common to all media coverage, especially by TV channels is the portended windfall for the players. A player stands to make anywhere from $100,000 USD to upwards of $2,000,000 USD. These numbers are plain obscene, especially when our per capita GDP is only ~$1050 USD. These numbers sound even more mind numbing if we actually convert them to Indian Rupees. Now don't get me wrong - i do not resent cricket players making this sort of money. It is just that except for creating a few temporary jobs (jobs outside of franchises, players, league administrators, media houses, sponsors) every year, IPL does not do anything useful, does not create anything useful - it is still just entertainment ... entertainment, let me say that again - entertainment. Millions of us will end up wasting time, money, and probably even the health of our retinas and ears, and for some may be even their livers (all the drinking that will go on while watching the games!). IPL is nothing but a national time pass, and a lousy one at that.
Furthermore, the controversy about the nexus between media, big business, and politicians that came to the fore when 'Niira Radia Tapes' were made public is still a steaming pile of crap and here we find all three together in bed again. Cricket, the way it is run in India, and especially the IPL, makes for a prime example of that. Our politicians are the folks who govern the sport in the country, the big business owns different franchises, and the media leaves no stone unturned in promoting the event. Only difference is that IPL is like a poison pill that is sweetened to make it easier for us to swallow - the franchises recruit celebrities to draw eyeballs and generate faux interest.
Wake up India. It is time to smell the coffee. Let us call it what it actually is - entertainment overload. The tournament is six months out and i already have a headache. IPL is Indian Phools' League - a Cricket league of the phools, for the phools, by the phools. Actually, come to think of it, it is for the phools for sure, but people who are in it and those who run it are the smart ones as they make big bucks at our expense. The media in India is taking us for ride as it considers us nothing more than dumb eyeballs, and fools (or phools if you like that sorta thing) we are if we are not smart about how we spend our time, effort and money. Let us resolve to not pay anymore attention to IPL and everything else that goes with it, than what it really deserves, anymore than what we'll pay to a circus that is in town once a year. Anyway, we need to inculcate in ourselves as well as in generations younger to us, better interests, better ways of entertaining ourselves - reading, writing, arts and crafts, performing arts etc.
Jai Hind.
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