The real blog

This is a phenomenon, which for 200 million Indians at least is like drug-addiction – an everyday dosage that keeps them entertained, interested and preoccupied in a never-before way. The eyeball-generating tags attached to the mini form of the sport, and the hype that this capitalist media generates about the Indian Premier League has already had such tremendous influence on the masses, that apart from a few urban matured maniacs, the fake ipl player has become rather difficult to analyse and accept.

Look at it from a different angle, and the blogger has done everything right in creating a new entertainment value – the explicit descriptions, hilarious sarcasm,
and the spicy writing style of his in his revelations (fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com) have captured the imaginations of all involved with IPL and the Knight Riders. Invariably, the bigger the size of a commodity, the larger seems its share of controversies and negatives, and the Infamous Premier League is proving no exception. The ire that came from Subhash Chandra’s nerve of coming up with the ICL, which was virtually a slap on BCCI’s cheek after the 2007 World Cup debacle at the Caribbean, meant the IPL vowed to prove a point and show the might of the richest cricketing body in the world. It lured corporates, and along with a combination of cheerleaders, fireworks, masala-spoken anchors, Bollywood stars and non-stop cricket involving the most competent sportsmen the world over, created suddenly a whole new culture, that which proved to be a successful venture for all apart from, and also for, us consumers. Since then there is no looking back.

Kolkata Knight Riders, from the time it came to existence, has had the highest brand value and is always in headlines. And then suddenly arrives its supposed member IPL Anonymous out of nowhere and has a serious dig at all IPL Stars - the players, coaching staff, anchors, commentators and even Bollywood stars; lays bare every detail of outrageous ‘inside stories’ and finds audience. He throws up embarrassing questions to everyone associated with the running of this T20 Extravaganza and his own team, and enlarges the whole culture even more.


Is he really a player? Why is he delighted to reveal everything? Are all cricketing values getting lost? Is it all part of just propaganda? Are we consumers just fools? These are debatable queries that may or may not ever be answered officially. What we for certain know is that the incurring of these questions itself is one of the ulterior motives of this blogger. Most of us are still at a loss to really conclude whether this blog by such an ingenious blogger should at all continue. After all, it entertains us no end. It also provides us with the real pictures of the Bhookha Naans, Appam Chutias and Sheikhs of tweak. For the pessimists, IPL and the blogging phenomenon are part of a strategy to exploit gullible consumers. All this is in a way the side effect of excessive commercialization of this beautiful sport.

The concept of dirty capitalism then comes into picture. IPL exists merely on profit-motives, and its value to us is nothing more than 3.5 hours of cricketing entertainment. Lets learn to gradually remove passion from interest, swallow and discharge everything out of our systems before it swallows us. But let the blog continue, because for the point it makes, and the questions it raises, the fake IPL blog is not fake.