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With the third edition of the Indian Premier League coinciding with controversial tweets, high-profile resignations and tax raids, the cricket and the cricketers seem to have been forgotten. Aditya Iyer recalls the quirky facts and comic capers that accompanied the high scores and the dream spells.
That could have been a DLF Maximum, but turned out to be a Karbonn Kamaal Catch. What a Citi Moment of Success it was, now it's time for a Maxx Mobile Time-Out," a commentator bellows in one breath for a catch at the boundary before the camera cuts to a branded blimp in the sky.
It was only a matter of time before this had to happen. A former cricketer, sharing real estate space with the seasoned professionals of brand-building, makes his presence felt in the commentary box. By the time the semi-finals of the Indian Premier League's third edition were wrapped up a month later, the commentator and his colleagues didn't miss a single opportunity to scream out the surrogate brand jargons for 568 sixes, 391 catches, 695 dismissals and 232 strategic breaks, give or take a few.
Through the lung-filled clichs and zeppelins in the skies, yet another edition of the tournament studded with its controversies has crawled to its conclusion. Here's taking a look at all that happened on and off the advertisement-filled field.
March 12: IPL commissioner Lalit Modi & Co leave no stone unturned as they beg, borrow and steal performers, dancers, movie stars and cheerleaders from all over the world for the tournament's return-to-India opening ceremony. While the toss is conveniently delayed, Deepika Padukone, UB40, a Star Warsesque performance with light sabers, dancing girls and Lionel Richie shake a leg for the packed house at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The side attraction witnesses last season's bottom runners, Kolkata Knight Riders, defeating the reigning champions, the Deccan Chargers.
March 13: Rajasthan lose despite Yusuf Pathan's 37-ball 100. Meanwhile, the Mumbai side sport a brand new jersey with silver stripes running down the shoulders, supposedly signifying the Bandra-Worli Sea-Link. Team owner Nita Ambani explains: "We have managed to creatively capture the facets of Mumbai and I am sure the fans will love their team in this new look." If they understand it, that is.
March 14: Commercials are now officially televised in-between deliveries as the camera strategically pans in and out of the big screen at the stadium featuring a sponsor. Because the 12 logos on each cricketer, a field flooded with adverts, and 90 seconds of commercials between overs weren't enough.
March 15: Home and away support goes for a toss as Rajasthan play their 'home' game in Gujarat, while Deccan travel to Orissa for their second 'home' game their first one was in Mumbai.
March 16: Kolkata field eleven players who have featured in one or more international matches for their country. It doesn't help though, as Chennai go from 81/3 at the end of the 14th over to 164/3. Ironically, Kolkata's colour for the season is purple IPL's colour code for the best bowler.
March 17: "I see the IPL becoming bigger than the NFL, the NBA, the English Premier League," Modi had exclaimed. But as Sachin Tendulkar destroys Delhi at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium, a 50,000-strong crowd support the downfall of their own side.
March 18: Test cricket's 123-year history has witnessed 37 hat-tricks, 25 in the 39th year of one-day internationals. But in a dime-a-wicket scenario, Bangalore's Praveen Kumar captures the seventh hat-trick in the third season of the tournament.
March 19: The Mongoose finally captures a nation's imagination when it is unleashed by Matthew Hayden. Giving the new-age bat an advertisement like never before, Hayden smashes a 43-ball 93 (74 runs with the brick-on-a-stick).
March 20: With 276 Test matches, 886 ODIs, 51,446 runs and 76 years between them, the experience that Mumbai's opening pair of Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya brings to the table is second to none. Unfortunately, it fails to work against Bangalore.
March 21: "Jet-lag is not too bad," says Juan 'Rusty' Theron, Punjab's latest recruit. Finding himself on the field almost immediately after stepping out of the aircraft, Theron holds his nerve in the Super Over to lead Punjab to their first win in four attempts.
March 22: Almost nothing perturbs Chris Gayle, except an airline losing his baggage that contains his trademark sunglasses. He scores 75 without the shades.
March 23: "I'm just a businessman and have absolutely no idea about cricket," Mukesh Kumar, one of the co-owners of the Kochi franchise explains why he has spent his millions wisely. Meanwhile on the field, after scores of 65*, 89*, 44* and 66* in his first four matches, Jacques Kallis is finally dismissed for 19. His average: 283.
March 24: Irfan Pathan keeps the tradition going by dropping brother Yusuf on seven. The pair has now dropped each other on three occasions in three matches in the three editions. Head-to-head: Irfan 2 -1 Yusuf.
March 25: Karumanaseri Narayanaiyer Ananthapadmanabhan is the match-referee for the Bangalore-Delhi game. The Kerala-born has more letters in his name (42) than Bangalore's top-scorer Manish Pandey has runs (39).
March 26: Yusuf credits his parents and a foul-mouthed Andrew Symonds in the same breath for his match-winning 34-ball 73. "My mummy-papa have been coming for the last two games and I am happy that I scored some runs for them today... It inspires you when people sledge. When I went in, Symonds sledged me."
March 27: The Punjab fans wait with bated breath for Brett Lee to return: 39 runs from four tedious overs later, they stop breathing.
March 28: He is the last to bat, but scores an 18-ball 49* against Deccan. He is a spinner, but opens the bowling, only to lead the way with three wickets. He is the Man-of-the-Match. He is fined $15,000 for abusing T Suman. For all the right reasons and wrong, he is Harbhajan Singh.
March 29: David Warner becomes the fifth Australian to score a century with an unbeaten 107 against Kolkata.
March 30: Punjab lose their sixth game out of seven, while Mumbai win their sixth out of seven. Meanwhile, Tendulkar goes on to receive the Orange Cap for the first time, but not before Shalabh Srivastava bowls six straight dot balls to him.
March 31: The remaining Delhi fielders relax as the ball follows David Warner like a magnet. Warner takes four catches and follows it up with one run-out to wrap Rajasthan up.
April 1: "We tactically took a gamble with (Pragyan) Ojha bowling one over when Ganguly was still out there," says Deccan's Adam Gilchrist, who had clearly forgotten the former Indian skipper's appetite for left-arm spinners. Ganguly smashes five sixes, four off Ojha, three in the same over, during his 88.
April 2: All eyes are on Yuvraj Singh after newspaper headlines allege that he and Sangakkara are in the middle of a raging feud. The side lose their seventh game in eight matches.
April 3: Murali Vijay brings the country to a standstill with 127 (highest score by an Indian) as Chennai post 246/5 (highest IPL score) against Rajasthan. The match aggregate is a world-record 469 runs.
April 4: Jayawardene resorts to Test match-style batting and scores a carpet-hugging century. Punjab actually win in the stipulated 20 overs.
April 5: Pragyan Ojha takes over the Purple Cap from Muttiah Muralitharan. "I am not fond of caps," says Murali.
April 6: Tendulkar loses to the Chennai weather, his team to the city.
April 7: "The mood is good," says Sangakkara at the toss. Yuvraj screams at Sreesanth, Sreesanth screams at himself, coach Moody screams at all of them. The batsmen take Sreesanth to the cleaners. Sreesanth mocks the batsmen and then claps at the umpires, which costs him $9,000. Now, the mood is not so good.
April 8: Deccan chase down Bangalore's 185, but Gilchrist is a demanding man. "A 90% improved performance, still 10% left to do."
April 9: It's dj vu in Mohali. Five years and a beard later, Piyush Chawla cleans up Tendulkar's stumps.
April 10: "If they play like this, God help their careers," an angry Ganguly lashes out at team mates after they lose to Bangalore. He adds: "When I was leading India, I had some serious talent to look after. That probably helped." That must have hurt.
April 11: Tendulkar scores 500 runs this season with only his second six of the tournament.
April 12: Gilchrist is quite used to keeping to leg-spinners, but even the experience of crouching to Shane Warne couldn't prepare him for fast bowler Harmeet Singh. Harmeet has taken his slower variation (more like stock-ball) so seriously that he has learnt the flipper and the googly.
April 13: Asked why he is so popular in Chennai, Dhoni says: "People would come and speak to me in Tamil whenever I go out at night on my bike and stop in the red light areas."
April 14: Refusing to sacrifice his wicket for a well-set Pietersen, Virat Kohli receives the yelling of a lifetime from his senior partner. It seems to last for a lifetime too, as the run-out decision goes upstairs for a referral.
April 15: No high-fives after wickets for Doug Bollinger as he is busy covering his mane with his hands. After Suresh Raina nearly pulled off Bollinger's Russian hair implants in the previous game during one such celebration, the Australian is a lot more cautious this time around.
April 16: The IPL travels to the scenic Dharamsala. Although it is surrounded by the snow-laden Himalayas, you can see none of it as the organisers schedule a night game. Symonds swallows a large moth, one of the many species of insects that the floodlights attract.
April 17: Two low-intensity bombs explode outside Gate No 12 of the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. To everyone's credit, the show goes on after a one-hour delay. "Sachin Tendulkar is a great cricketer but he goes to the toilet like all of us," reveals Bangalore coach Ray Jennings. Tendulkar's side flush out Bangalore for a 57-run victory.
April 18: The Dalai Lama tells Yuvraj that he was once a table-tennis player. An enlightened Yuvraj finds the answer to all his problems. "If they throw me out of Kings XI, I might join Manchester United," the Punjab player is quoted as saying.
April 19: The semi-final line-up has been decided unfairly, as Kolkata are still in with a mathematical chance. A never-say-die Kolkata fan writes on a popular cricket website: "If they were to allow Mumbai to score 317 runs and chase it down in one ball, they would pip Bangalore. Alternatively, they can let Mumbai score 1000 runs and finish the game off in 5 overs."
April 20: It's rest-day, but IPL continues to make headlines as Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi keep the media busy.
April 21: Harbhajan hoists Nita Ambani in the air to celebrate Mumbai entering the final. He then does the same to Tendulkar. "At least he isn't partial to either sex," Harsha Bhogle says on-air.
April 22: Of the 24 deliveries that Bollinger bowls, no runs are scored off 18. He scalps four wickets to take Chennai into their second final in three seasons.
April 23: The taxmen are busy. Even the IPL cheerleaders are under investigation, though it seems a tad difficult to hide wads of cash under the skimpy spandex.
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