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Recently we are experiencing a great sense of exhilaration and excitement seen onthe front pages of all news papers. This whole excitement has produced a vehementamount of attention dominating most of the public discourses. An unprecedentedcompetition has been evoked among the dailies to embellish their leads with mania,what they call Indian Premium League (IPL). There is no doubt about India and itscricketic traditions. Cricket here is parallel to religion. Even lot ofscholarship has been already done on the unparalleled impression of cricket in thepsyche of Indian masses. Historians like Ramchandra Guha, Boria Majumdar, and

Arjun Appadurai, all have attributed this to peculiar traits of Indian masses.Cricket was introduced by British as a tool for civilizing mission, to civilizethe barbarians. This was interpreted in a different way by Indians, thus as ameans for showing superiority over the British. Cricket was no more seen as asport. People began to look at cricket as a war, the war that was fought by theyoung sons to save the valor of their mother. Women were never allowed to jointhis war as winning the war was the matter of national pride. Cricket over aperiod arrived at communal tone. Teams were formed on the basis of religion. Evenpersonalities like Jinnah, Nehru showed immense interested in such form of thegame. After independence this historical significance of cricket perpetuated withIndia-Pakistan rivalry.

In recent cricket has been commercialized to such an extent that

it has led to merger of rivalries. Kudos to Indian Bollywood stars, media moguls,businessmen who have made this to happen. With kedgeree of Bollywood, media andcricket modicum of people can stay away from this million dollar baby called IPL.Cricket and Bollywood are two potent components of Indian cultural life. IPLbrings these both together to make unfathomable impression on Indian masses. Mediatill now has remained brawny ally for promulgation of this impression. Severalmedia organizations like Deccan Chronicle, themselves are taking part in thismarathon.

Indian premium league as the name itself implies isan association of top class personalities from leading Bollywood stars to businesstycoons. ICT is experimented in India with great confidence investing moneywithout thinking twice. No one is pessimistic about the results. Media, common

people are going gaga over this huge experimentation. As times of India rightlyquote it in one of its features money is oozing like oil in Indore Jalebi.Millions and millions of billions are being spent by this premium club while theirumpire (media) justifying it with that it will give opportunity for buddingcricketers. If it is so, why didnt these philanthropists think of experimentingsome of these millions on subaltern classes, earth quake stricken people on theborders of India Pakistan? So even lets assume that some it will bring out newtalent what is big deal. How it will prove beneficial to millions incapacitatedpeople who even dont posses TV sets in their homes or are homeless? There is nodoubt that IPL or million dollar baby machine will succeed in appealing the massesor will pacify them without letting them to question. By experimenting on suchhuge level this league, it proves itself that Indian audiences are mere seen ascultural dopes. Cricket penetrates into minds of Indian masses like magic bullet;

it is easily palatable commodity that gratifies their fantasies. What might be thereason for this peculiar trait of Indian masses should be left for psychoanalysts.Here my point is why not Indian masses dont take step to do something differentthis time that will liberate them from tab called cultural dopes.

Cricket which was like a war some time back is taking now adifferent route. Remember when Shoib Akhter bowling to Sehwag, where is thatrivalry. Who should now cricket loving audience support Shoib or Sehwag, butremember that they are playing for same country, country of Indian premium league.Money has shown the power in front of which any sport falls to naught. It isobvious that sport is the only name, while actual game is money. Why dont we call

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this film as namesake?

The important question is where IPL will take Indias future, iwonder it should not be like that there will be civilization exposure ( rememberBritish introduced this game to civilize barbarians). There are total 8 teams inIPL, representing eight different cities; lets hope we dont see any conflict ofregionalism and nationalism in future. IPL play India at your own risk.