IPL 2

This weekend kicked off the second season of the Indian Premier League. The only catch to this year's follow up to the first highly successful and lucrative cricket tournament is that it is being held in South Africa, not India.
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Thanks to the ongoing elections in India (more on the elections in the next post), the entire tournament was moved to South Africa. State governments insisted that they could not provide adequate security near election days and the IPL was forced to come up with an alternative schedule. This schedule had random cities without an IPL team hosting many matches and several host teams without a home game, including Delhi.
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Finally, Lalit Modi, founder of the IPL announced that the tournament would not be cancelled, but would be held outside of India, in either South Africa or England. I think it's quite a shame for India. The buzz and excitement around last year's IPL was refreshing and the money generated from sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandise is something that is not usually seen in India. Although people can watch from here and buy all of the Delhi Daredevil t-shirts they want, it's not the same as the real deal.
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Already I find that I'm less inclined to watch the matches, but maybe that will change with time.

An Olympic Outrage

Today there was an uproar in the Indian media about the Indian Olympics team. Apparently the team was to stay in a dingy 2-star hotel upon its return to Delhi. Anyone who follows cricket here knows that the mens' cricket team frequently stays in the top hotels in the city, and the media was quick to point this out this difference in treatment and lack of support for sports (other than cricket).

Now it seems that the Indian Olympic Committee is back tracking and claiming that was never the case. Either way, the team is now staying at the very nice, and 5-star hotel, Claridges...

Crazy for Cricket

I'd like to report that the cricket match was a lot of fun. Armen came along with me and Ani, but unfortunately, our tickets were in different sections so we couldn't actually sit together. Despite that, I think we all had a good time.

Professional cricket at the city level is completely new in India and I don't think people are quite used to it yet. No one identifies with their "home" team and I saw more people with Indian flags painted on their faces than wearing the colors of the Delhi Daredevils.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has players from all of the major cricket-watching countries (except the UK which is protesting or something). But players from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies play side by side. It must be weird to have your former competitor as your teammate. But I guess when you are getting paid big bucks for 6 weeks of play, you don't really care. The top salary this year is $1.65 million but there are rumors the salary cap will be eliminated next year and estimates are that salaries may reach $15 million. Please remember that this tournament lasts only 6 weeks and includes about 20 match per team. But then again, most of the teams are owned by billionaires, either businessmen or Bollywood stars, so they can afford the ridiculous pay checks.

I don't think the fans really know how to handle it. Of course people went wild whenever the Delhi team scored a 6 (loosely equivalent to a home run in baseball), but they also went crazy when the other team scored! Maybe it was the shear excitement of seeing a 6, but I think they were just confused. There was a lot of whistling, but no chants or cheers (I guess they don't have them yet). All of this increased astronomically when the TV cameras were near. We didn't have a good view of the cheerleaders, who were from only the opposing team, but Delhi scrapped their cheerleading squad a few weeks ago in favor of a bhangra band.

On a random side note, there are no alcohol sales are cricket matches. I don't think I have ever been to a sporting event without alcohol, but I have to remember that this is India. I think people would go absolutely mad with accessible alcohol on top of the cricket craziness.

And oh, Delhi won by 12 runs.

So would I go to another match? Absolutely. It was a lot of fun.

Cricket!

I'm going to my first cricket match tomorrow! Ani and I are going to watch the Delhi Daredevils, part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament going on this summer. And no, I won't be able to check out the cheerleaders. The Delhi team abandoned cheerleaders last week in favor of a bhangra band.

I think I have enough of the basics down. I know to call it a match and not a game. I know what a wicket is. I can name at least the top 5 players in Indian cricket. Of course, there's still a lot I don't know, but I can wing it.

Unfortunately cameras aren't allowed at the stadium, so I won't be able to capture the moment to share with everyone. But I will do my best to relive the action on my blog in the next couple of days.

Chak De India!

This is how yesterday afternoon unfolded:

4:15pm: Mass exodus from the office building

5:00pm: I decided to leave the office because everyone else was gone

5:15pm: Major traffic jam in Gurgaon (much earlier than normal)

5:30pm: India vs. Pakistan match begins

7:00pm: I walk to the market but most shops are closed

8:45pm: India wins the match by 5 runs

8:45:01pm: Neighborhood erupts in cheers
8:46pm: Impromptu fireworks start and continue throughout the night

Tuesday: Everyone is offered congratulations about India's victory
Nonstop: News coverage and water cooler talk about the match

Hindustan Times: India Beat Pak in Cliffhanger, Lift T20 World Cup

Wickets and Idols

Life in India really isn't all that different from life back at home.

Yesterday, two stories dominated the news: Sports (India's advancement to the finals of the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup) and Entertainment (the grand finale of Indian Idol).

Tonight India takes on its political rival, Pakistan, in the Twenty20 finals and it's all anyone can talk about it. It will be the first-ever final between these two nations and a very emotional ones (for the right or wrong reasons). Since I've learned more about cricket during my time in India than I ever thought imaginable, I'll probably be in front of the TV, just like everyone else here, cheering for India this evening.

And last night, a young man from Darjeeling won the hearts of India and was crowned the newest Indian Idol. The finale was much like those in the US, with minimal singing from the contestants, appearances from random artists and even the same theme song. It was the third installment here of the world-wide phenomenon where, I read in the paper today, 70 million votes were cast.

If it weren't for the heat, dust, power outages and water shortages, I might forget where I was.

What’s a Wicket?

The India vs. West Indies cricket match is going on right now and I know this because every few minutes the crowd in the cafeteria down the hall erupts into applauses and cheers. I just looked around the floor and it’s pretty empty. Half of the office must be in the cafeteria watching the match on TV.

Cricket is THE sport in India. No other sport matters nearly as much, despite how good a particular team or individual athlete might be.

I will not claim to be an expert, but I’m finally starting to learn the rules of cricket. Watching the sport on television has become so much more interesting, because I actually understand what’s going on. And now I can read the sports page (75% of which is about cricket) with some interest.