Bangalore Royal Challengers

Bangalore Royal Challengers

-IPL & the Bangalore Royal Challengers

Big bucks make news always. Be it when MBAs get it as salaries, or a company acquires another or like in the recent case of how much our cricketers stand to earn from the newly launched IPL. So IPL made all the news & became a topic of discussion with friends over tea & with colleagues over lunch. But to me as a Metblogs blogger, IPL just made blogging about cricket on Metblogs a possibility. I am sure you will agree that there is not much written here about Cricket, the sport that most of us feverishly follow in this country. The only reason for it is because there is nothing very Bangalore specific about it. Its just a game. But now that we have a Bangalore team (supposedly to be called Royal Challengers) in the IPL, the urge to write on it is high.

At a time when we have had posts about Bangalore becoming a world city & whether some section of today’s Bangalore population will be asked to leave the way it is happening in our neighboring state, comes the news of IPL & the Bangalore team that has not just Bangalore players but also players from other states of the country & most importantly players from other countries. So there you have it at least through IPL, the Bangalore team has world players & they are being lured with big money.

So does the Bangalore team of IPL generate excitement among us Bangaloreans? Not for me to answer. Will this Bangalore team unite all the Bangaloreans exactly the way we get united when India plays? May be. May be Not. All I can feel at this point in time is it is going to be a little different.

I recollect the experience of wandering around the Chinnaswamy Stadium looking to find someone selling tickets in black for an India-Australia test match. When we eventually found a guy selling tickets in black we paid 5 times the tickets original cost. Will this team bring out such a desperate desire to watch them live?

Who will be our ‘arch rivals’? My guess is Chennai.

I for some reason feel that for all those HR or Chief Fun officers of companies always on the look out for something new & different there is one new type of activity they could use. Sponsor tickets for these matches; play them on big screens at offices etc.

Big names, Big money - Will it all lead to big entertainment & big following as well needs to be seen.