BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

The IPLT20 is finally over and millions of cricket lovers have not much left to do. Even I am thinking what to do in the evening as there is no match today. Go out or simply sit back and watch a new TV serial. Having spent almost 39 evenings at home watching the matches, there is suddenly a vacuum in our lives after the final match. But what will South Africans do who were directly involved in doing their jobs for the tournament and/or watching the games.

The hotels would be half empty. The employees would be enjoying  themselves after the hard work. Airport staff would be happy. This had been a high flying tournament and after 40 days of hullabaloo and hectic arrangements they would be relaxing in bright sunshine. The Security Staff deputed for this tournament would have gone to quench their thirst after the final. They had earned a well deserved slug after doing a splendid job. They stayed sober during this hi-fi extravaganza to ward of any untoward incident. It is only by the exceptional prowess of the Security Staff that everything went off smoothly.

The bar owners are a bit disturbed. The attendance after the tournament was very thin which affected their sales. They don’t have to wait much as the FIFA Cup is scheduled to be held in June 09 there. By that time they can enjoy themselves with their own companions. Ah! What would the beautiful cheer leaders be doing? Perhaps go home and search for a suitable boy i.e. if not already done interalia wait for the next tournament and need to practice.

Not to forget the Indian TV Channels who suffered the most except Sony Max, the official telecaster of IPLT20. Not a single serial has been launched in the last 40 days. Sony TV’s assistant vice president (marketing) Mr Danish Khan said and I quote “It was not advisable to launch program at a time when the entire country was hooked on cricket”. He further added that “But all said, this year the TRPs of programs have suffered a drop of 15% due to the matches”. This is indirectly a praise for IPL matches which created tremendous excitement and viewership the world over.

South Africa is called the rainbow nation of the world and the people there had whole heartedly accepted IPL in their country. The eight teams which played the tournament are now “household names”. The way the people thronged the stadiums and cheered the teams is ample proof of the fact that they are a cricket loving nation and they enjoyed despite the fact that this tourney was not from their country. Now they have to seek nerve rattling entertainment elsewhere.

Enjoyment has to go on and other avenues will be sought.

Ravi Matah

Tags: Indian Premier League 2009, IPL final, IPLT20, South Africa.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 7:33 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.