Napoleon Nayudu prepared to face another ball, several thoughts raced
through his mind. After being bought by the Gummidipoondi Gumboils for an
astronomical $5 million in the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, he
knew he had a reputation to keep up. Should he try a
straightforward Toyota Front Foot Drive this time, or should he aim for a
Bombay Dyeing Cover Drive ? Or perhaps an ITC Square Cut (Statutory
warning:Smoking is Injurious to Health) would be a better idea?
He realised he needed to hit an IBM boundary soon. Ever since IBM had
announced they would pay Rs 1 lakh per boundary and Rs 5 lakh for a six, he
had been trying to run less and hit more. Unfortunately, he hadn't been
doing either in this match, because the Begusarai Bandits had some very good
bowlers. The next ball, he played a Pepsi Inside Edge onto his Maggi
middle stump and trudged wearily off the field to the accompaniment of boos
from the Vodafone Zoozoo stand at the Kellogg's Special K-Cereal stadium in
Gummidipoondi. Relaxing in the Parle Glucose commentary box, Saurav
Ganguly ruminated on the momentous changes in the game that had occurred
since the IPL came into being. In 2010, he remembered, the game started to
really grow, with huge sums of money being paid for the Pune and Kochi
teams. Teams soon started springing up like frogs in the monsoon. And
when the Gorakhpur Gorillas won the IPL in 2012, every district town in the
country wanted its own side. The IPL season was extended to six months
in the year, then to 12 months and soon, once the villages started having
their own sides, you had matches on all 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Industrialists sold off their old companies and bought IPL teams. Twenty
five of the 30 Sensex stocks were of cricketing companies. Advertisers
fought with each other to sponsor matches, stadiums, sixes, fours, shots,
balls, wickets and what not. Every patch of the players' clothing, his arm
guard, helmet, and pads was covered in advertisements. Tendulkar Itch Guard
Crotch Guards started a new trend in merchandising, Guard Crotch Guards started a new trend in merchandising, selling like hot
cakes. As the money flowed in, players' salaries zoomed. Everybody wanted to be a
cricketer. Engineering and medical colleges were deserted and Indian
Institutes of Management converted themselves into institutes of cricketing
management. C.K. Prahalad's Chela ( The Guru being no more ) lectured on the
pot of gold at the bottom of the leg stump. Meanwhile, Finance Minister
Lalit Modi mooted a radical proposal in the Lok Sabha for nationalising the
Board of Control for Cricket in India , pointing out that its profits would
wipe out the government's fiscal deficit. Food production had suffered, he
said, as villagers refused to till their fields and spent their time playing
cricket instead. A law prohibiting the transformation of arable land into
cricket pitches was swiftly passed. A resolution to install a statue of
Lalit Modi in Parliament was also adopted unanimously. Back in the
commentary box, Ganguly did a rapid mental calculation and told his
listeners that Napoleon was now being paid the equivalent of Rs 10 lakh per
run. A twinge of regret passed through him - during the IPL season in 2010,
he recalled, he had been paid only about Rs 1.8 lakh per run. He needed to
make more money, he thought. Maybe he would join Navjot Sidhu in The Great
Indian Laughter Challenge and be paid lakhs for laughing. For the rest of
the match, he practised laughing hysterically at each ball.
through his mind. After being bought by the Gummidipoondi Gumboils for an
astronomical $5 million in the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, he
knew he had a reputation to keep up. Should he try a
straightforward Toyota Front Foot Drive this time, or should he aim for a
Bombay Dyeing Cover Drive ? Or perhaps an ITC Square Cut (Statutory
warning:Smoking is Injurious to Health) would be a better idea?
He realised he needed to hit an IBM boundary soon. Ever since IBM had
announced they would pay Rs 1 lakh per boundary and Rs 5 lakh for a six, he
had been trying to run less and hit more. Unfortunately, he hadn't been
doing either in this match, because the Begusarai Bandits had some very good
bowlers. The next ball, he played a Pepsi Inside Edge onto his Maggi
middle stump and trudged wearily off the field to the accompaniment of boos
from the Vodafone Zoozoo stand at the Kellogg's Special K-Cereal stadium in
Gummidipoondi. Relaxing in the Parle Glucose commentary box, Saurav
Ganguly ruminated on the momentous changes in the game that had occurred
since the IPL came into being. In 2010, he remembered, the game started to
really grow, with huge sums of money being paid for the Pune and Kochi
teams. Teams soon started springing up like frogs in the monsoon. And
when the Gorakhpur Gorillas won the IPL in 2012, every district town in the
country wanted its own side. The IPL season was extended to six months
in the year, then to 12 months and soon, once the villages started having
their own sides, you had matches on all 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Industrialists sold off their old companies and bought IPL teams. Twenty
five of the 30 Sensex stocks were of cricketing companies. Advertisers
fought with each other to sponsor matches, stadiums, sixes, fours, shots,
balls, wickets and what not. Every patch of the players' clothing, his arm
guard, helmet, and pads was covered in advertisements. Tendulkar Itch Guard
Crotch Guards started a new trend in merchandising, Guard Crotch Guards started a new trend in merchandising, selling like hot
cakes. As the money flowed in, players' salaries zoomed. Everybody wanted to be a
cricketer. Engineering and medical colleges were deserted and Indian
Institutes of Management converted themselves into institutes of cricketing
management. C.K. Prahalad's Chela ( The Guru being no more ) lectured on the
pot of gold at the bottom of the leg stump. Meanwhile, Finance Minister
Lalit Modi mooted a radical proposal in the Lok Sabha for nationalising the
Board of Control for Cricket in India , pointing out that its profits would
wipe out the government's fiscal deficit. Food production had suffered, he
said, as villagers refused to till their fields and spent their time playing
cricket instead. A law prohibiting the transformation of arable land into
cricket pitches was swiftly passed. A resolution to install a statue of
Lalit Modi in Parliament was also adopted unanimously. Back in the
commentary box, Ganguly did a rapid mental calculation and told his
listeners that Napoleon was now being paid the equivalent of Rs 10 lakh per
run. A twinge of regret passed through him - during the IPL season in 2010,
he recalled, he had been paid only about Rs 1.8 lakh per run. He needed to
make more money, he thought. Maybe he would join Navjot Sidhu in The Great
Indian Laughter Challenge and be paid lakhs for laughing. For the rest of
the match, he practised laughing hysterically at each ball.
Love,
Smit
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