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| Sunday, September 30, 2007 |
| Indian's Unstoppable - No one can stop us - We are the best! |
It is fast, furious and intense and fits into the country's new credo of high energy, instant gratification, money and success, especially applicable to the young generation, most targeted by marketers in India. The Indian sub-continent's most passionate sport, cricket, has emerged in a fresh avatar fitted into a shorter time frame, accompanied by American style flamboyance and razzmatazz such as dancing cheer leaders, fireworks, fast music and more.
Twenty-Twenty cricket is the quick paced shortened and energized version as opposed to the original slam-bang daylong 50-overs-a-side or the 5-day test matches. The team's now have to slug it out like boxers or gladiators, going for the big hits, combining technique with raw power, the slog and dollops of luck, all packed into three hours of rapid action. The uncertainty, with fortunes changing by the ball literally, and non-stop entertainment keeps the audience on the feet through the duration.
Essentially, the change has come about in keeping with dwindling spectator attention span given fast paced lives combined with the need for that adrenalin rush from sport. Cricket, too had to change.
The icing has been an India-Pakistan grand finale played this Monday in South Africa that India won after a closely contested match that could have gone either way. But the winner, was also the game of cricket, re-invented and served spiced up to sell-out crowds and TV audiences around the globe. The matches were choc-a-bloc, TV ratings zoomed and given the eyeballs, advertisers have gone home happy despite paying broadcasters up to US$25,000 for a 10 second slot.
It is estimated that over the next eight years Twenty20-cricket will earn cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council, $1.5 billion from television rights alone. In India, cricket ratings knocked off established soaps, musical contests and reality shows that have dominated, especially after the early exit of the Indian team from the world championship of the traditional slower form in the recent past.
The illegal satta (gambling) market has also been reporting brisk business. An earlier India-Pakistan league match witnessed frenzied betting to the tune of a reported Rs 5 billion just in regions around commercial capital Mumbai. Almost all 20-20 matches were fiercely fought with the result apparent at the end only.
Australia considered almost invincible into the tournament was humbled by the lowly rated Zimbabwe in an earlier round. The result was akin to Brazil or Germany beaten by USA in soccer. India was almost knocked out and had the only option of winning by big margins to stay afloat. They managed it quite well. Even as the tournament progressed and India emerged champions of snappy cricket, back home traffic dwindled with reports of appointments canceled all over and the usually efficient and hard working private sector took a pause, to toast the team.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too took time off to watch the final. The new game seems best practiced by the young and fearless. India was without the big three aging stars, considered the cricketing gods of India, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. The Indian team with an average age of 24 years was among the youngest. |
posted by John @ 6:37 AM   |
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