The
IPL Extravaganza is all set to begin from today – 76 matches starting with CSK
taking on MI at Chennai today.. This post is not about who would walk alongside
Murali Vijay – will it be Anirudha Srikkanth or Abhinav Mukund or some
makeshift opener in the form of Saha or some other foreign player ?
..................................................................................................................................................................
It
is a show of mass commercialism - Bells
Road
The
first thought that strikes common man, is how these would affect his way of
commuting. The fragile traffic system is
already bewildered by the changes in traffic in Anna Salai. Now on day of IPL matches, there would be more
diversions, adding to the traffic woes. There
are to be 8 matches at Chepauk – some starting at 4 pm and some at 8 pm.
It
is reported that Traffic Police have made diversions which will be in place
from 1 pm to 7 pm for matches commencing at 4 pm and from 5pm to 11.30 pm for the 8 pm matches. During such times, Bells
Road will be made a one-way stretch with entry from WallajahRoad and no entry
from Bharathi Salai. No vehicles, except
MTC buses and vehicles with valid passes,will be allowed from Kamarajar Salai towards
Bharathi Salai. This sure would add to
the chaos and disrupt the traffic more, bringing in difficulties to old and
other commuters – but when it is cricket festivity, does anybody really care ?
Sure,
you know that besides big names like MS
Dhoni, George Bailey (who captained Aussies in T20), Mike Hussey, Dwayne Bravo,
Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, there are others like Saha, Boulinger, Hinfenhaus,
Suraj Randiv, Kulasekhara, Badrinath, Murali Vijay, Anirudha Srikanth, Abhinav
Mukund, Du Plessis, Scott Styris, Albie Morkel all play for CSK
There
are also other lesser knowns like – Sudeep Tyagi, Yo Mahesh, Joginder, Shadab
Jakati, Vasudevadas, Ganapathi Vignesh… but more than Cricket, IPL is more of
glam and marketing. For a season of
Cricketing, they marketed with glamour yesterday at YMCA – with people buying
costly tickets to watch the inaugural show !!
- it was not what it was touted to be !!
The
glamour quotient was at an all-time high as a galaxy of stars, led by megastar
Amitabh Bachchan, descended at the at the YMCA College of Physical Education
and set the stage on fire with their performance. Though there were many glam stars, it
appeared that the crowd was not entirely on their feet as the event was sort of
a non-starter. Amitabh, started the proceedings for the
evening with a rendition of a poem 'If I were to be born again', written by
renowned lyricist Prasoon Joshi. – the Colonial Cousins Hariharan and Leslie
Lewis did not churn out great stuff. It was away from Cricket, venue was also away
from the playing arena and the Opening Nite did not quite live up to the
expectations. Salman never a hit down
south. Prabhu deva has courted more controversies of
late and not as flexible as he was in his yesteryears.
Priyanka
Chopra show even with the CSK Team appeared a flop show as even ‘chennaikku
whilstle podu’ also did not arouse the expected sound. The show
of Kareena Kapoor lacked fizz and was damp squib. Ravi Shastri walked stiff and talked about the
spirit and the pledge !!! Katy Perry
dance looked a scene straight from any Telegu movie. Rajeev
Shukla spoke of what makes one look
forward to Cricket after the beginning and hopefully this is not what he wanted
to promote.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar .
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