I don’t have the figures, so this is educated guess rather than scientific observation, but viewing numbers have to be down over the last week or so for Isidingo, The Bold, 7 de Laan, Passions, and the rest of the series of substance that represent the staple of late afternoon/early evening viewing. The reason? There’s a new soap opera on every day, and it’s blowing everything else out of the water.

The IPL has played deliberately off its Bollywood image — several Indian film stars are amongst the owners of the franchises, and over the top theatre has been the approach since the player auction got underway — and there was suggestion that the scale of build-up to the new 20-over competition would set a level of expectation the actual cricket would struggle to live up to. One week in, and that suggestion’s been mown down in a blur of high-octane cricket on a carnival stage.

Unless I misheard the commentator in question (this being a commentary team with Kepler Wessels on board; oh, the irony of Wessels calling a Twenty20 game), the blonde and brunette cheerleaders littering the sidelines of the games are on loan from the Washington Redskins American football team. A natural breeding ground, one assumes, for developing a keen appreciation of the game of cricket… And yet somehow, they fit right in, along with the manic crowds, the manic pace of the game, and cricket as it’s become for 44 days: Technicolor melodrama on fast forward.

Brendan McCallum’s quite ridiculous innings first up — from the leading edge over second slip’s head for six, to the paddle sweep to clear the fine leg boundary (a ‘DLF Maximum Six Contender’, as the commentators appear to be contractually obliged to squeal every time a ball goes anywhere near the ropes) — kick-started what’s been a breathless dose of cricket. Frivolous, over the top, totally self-absorbed — and like all good soap operas, completely addictive.

If McCallum, resplendent in gold pads and helmet — cricket as Liberace would have had it — hasn’t seen his opening 158 overhauled yet, then there have been several displays of similar pyrotechnics. Mike Hussey’s brilliant hundred for the Chennai Super Kings, some brutal flashes from Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag taking the Deccan Chargers apart quite mercilessly to give the Delhi Daredevils a second win — it was going to take quite some cricket just to match the names that the franchises have come up with, but so far the game has more than kept pace.

And while we haven’t seen a genuine South African explosion yet, there has been a flag waved, Mark Boucher’s 19-ball 39 taking the Bangalore Royal Challengers (who’ve ditched the top-three idea of Dravid, Jaffer and Kallis — not Twenty20’s most electric top order) to victory over Shaun Pollock’s Mumbai Indians, a team Pollock probably qualifies for by dint of hailing from Durban. Morkel, Gibbs, Smith, Bosman, Steyn and De Villiers are all lined up to get stuck in, though — and we’ve still got an exhausting month or so ahead of us.

There was a time when the start of the English summer meant the County Championship getting into full swing, and with it an influx of star names looking for the game’s biggest pay cheques. Come 2008, and the star attraction of the English game is the bold suggestion that a pink cricket ball might just be introduced for the occasional 20-over game; the money’s gone east in a big way, and getting a stint as an overseas pro for one of the counties means pocket money. The game’s financial muscle is firmly in India now, and doesn’t it show.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za

    Print this page
    Send this article to a friend
    RSS
       Digg
    de.li.cious
    facebook