CRICKERTAINMENT

Q: What is IPL?

A: Advertisement space created on the body of 22 persons who are going to be watched for 3 hours at prime time, while performing in a cricket based reality show.

Q: What attracts the viewers to the TV screens while a match is on?

A: Action hai, drama hai, tension hai, music hai, belly-dances hai, tycoons hai, stars hai aur cricketer bhi to hai.... everything a viewer can want is there..... everything that creates TRP's is there....

Q: Why is the player who hits the maximum 6's get a extra prize money?

A: Cause he took it on himself to help the TV channel squeeze in couple more promos.

Q: Do these stars really own the teams?

A: Yes they own a stake in the teams like 0.1% to 5% and get paid for their live performance thru the month of the series for giving interviews, cheering the teams, crying at losses, hugging their players and creating all the 'media' hype around the team and series. The actor / actresses also have their own reasons of giving a good performance, they too want to be in the media all the time, and what better way than to connecting your name with cricket.

Q: Would it not have made more sense to shift the dates of IPL before or after the elections? 

A: Neither were the elections declared out of the sudden nor were the IPL dates, it takes a lot of planning in positioning everything in such a convincing manner. If the match was in Mumbai, we would have had a jam packed stadium of 50-60k audience.... Even if that match was shifted to somewhere 95% of this crowd was watching the match on TV so the TRP would go up and this would the revenue and some crowd can sure be pulled in the stadium where ever the matches would be held. Also this way the newer broadcasters from various countries approached to buy rights for buying the coverage. And when in India the media always kept complaining about the length of the skirts of the belly dances (read cheerleaders).

Q: Who decides the winners?

A: Last year the team from Rajasthan were the 'under-dogs' they won (apparently only after the tournament we came to know that the team was co-owned by Mr. Lalit Modi the creator of IPL). This year Hyderabad and Bangalore were the 'under-dogs', Hydrabad won the tournament..... now if we consider that the maximum big bucks betting would happen before the start of the tournament on 'which team would win the tournament?' Thus the team least betted on has been the winner in both the seasons.

Q: How did Bangalore manage to put up such a stunning performance?

A: 4 hours of air-time, media attention and newspaper headlines all creating top of mind recall for Kingfisher and Royal Challenge was the key to pumping in enough muscle power to make sure that the team doesnt get out of the tournament early. If Bangalore would have not reached the semis and the finals, meaning Mr. Mallya would have missed 8 hours of air time branding space on prime-time with TRP's not only very high in India but also in countries like Aussi, England, Pak and South Africa.

Q: Why South Africa?

A: UB Group has big tie-up in beer and wine manufacturing in South Africa.... They are the only airlines to fly directly to S.A. except South African airlines is Kingfisher.... Kingfisher has some 4-5 holiday resort properties in S.A...... Kingfisher is launching some new wines in the Indian market which are made is South Africa...... UB Group partially owns the most popular beer in S.A...... Brands of UB group were to be seen on each and every team playing on the IPL and South Africa is a very beautiful place with a top of the line travel and tourism promotion budget.

Q: Why Bangalore didn't win Finals?

A: As much air time possible has been hogged, winning or loosing doesn't matter. And if bangalore had won there was a very heavy possibility that media would have come up with the headlines that the tournament was fixed and bangalore had set it up. Instead it was well established from the start of the tournament that Hyderabad team was in great and super form this year and can be the contenders of winning the tournament.

Illegal Notice:

- Bangalore was the team i wanted to win, even when i thought they will loose i didn't bet against them, out of the respect that the team is owned by the King of Good Times.

- When a Gilchrist hits a 85 of 35 balls or a Malinga bowls 5 yorkers an over or a Hayden does the effortless hittting...... "Performance gets a new meaning"

- All the words written above are not to be trusted, like 99% of the things you read online are a point of views of someone or the other.