I have very little interest in European football, partly because it is very fast and often ferocious for a laidback and subdued guy like me.
It doesn’t bring into play the words respect and gentlemanliness. Oh! Oh! the sight of people trying to run amok. They can dance their way elegantly, after all! Like the Brazilians used to.
When I first heard a kid use the ‘F’ word while missing a smash on badminton court a few years back, I looked at him with wide eyes. The kid’s grown up and still uses the word quite frequently. He has a lot of top cricketers to back him, those bred especially in T20 leagues, and my eyes don’t widen anymore.
We live in times of brazenness --- damn the result and get it all out here itself.
So when MS Dhoni was announced brand ambassador of English Premier League, I wasn’t surprised. He is the hottest property despite his IPL team being in hot water and what Uncle Srini had to go through.
EPL wants a share of a bigger, non-elitist Indian market. They know the man to go to. He is the symbol of a new small-town India, where people now have the money and time to splurge on entertainment. The economy may be in doldrums for now, but the sentiment is always strong to borrow a phrase.
We’ve seen how Dubai has successfully experimented with the expert commentators in Arabic. I quite liked the studio set-up, a local expert sitting in traditional robe and keffiyeh head-gear and another in two-piece suit – a perfect mix with plenty of passion in their comments.
I can imagine this happening here and if the Hindi commentary is good, it can give cricket a run for its money.
So, is Dhoni hitting the axe on his own foot as the adage goes in Hindi. Is he feeding something that can grab cricket’s market-share in the real India? For some additional change!
The cricket board doesn’t seem to think so. Or they must be thinking that cricket has just got too much ingrained into the souls of people, thanks to IPL.
