When I was visiting Mumbai recently, my friend Rakesh Joshi
called me.
“I have to tell you about the revolution taking place in
Indian sports!” he gushed over the phone.
We agreed to meet that evening for a drink.
When I reached the bar, Joshi was already there, a
half-consumed mug of beer in front of him.
As soon as I sat down he said, “Do you know how the sports
scene in India is transforming into something spectacular and mind-boggling at
the same time?”
He hadn’t even asked me what I would like to drink! This
told me how excited he was because otherwise this polite man would never have
committed such a breach of etiquette. However, I was not excited and my
etiquette was very much intact; so I calmly ordered a mug of beer for myself,
waited for it to arrive, took a deep sip, wiped my mouth with the back of my
hand and then spoke.
“No, I have no idea. Please tell me.”
“Simple concept,” he said, “Learning from the huge success
of the IPL – the Indian Premier League – for cricket, Indians have launched
similar leagues to promote other games.”
“But I thought the IPL was a success because cricket is
popular,” I said.
“So did I! But we were wrong. It appears that cricket is
popular because IPL is a success!”
I frowned and tried to concentrate. “I’m sorry, I don’t get
that. What do you mean, cricket is popular because IPL is a success?”
“Not sure,” he said briskly. “It sounded nice, so I said it.But what I do mean to say is that by
shortening the format of cricket, IPL has made cricket even more popular. And it’s
doing the same to badminton and kabbadi and hockey!”
