Tabloid Cricket? A Sport 'In Transit'

I honestly can't believe I'm writing about sports. (are pigs flying?)

But here's a piece on the evolving nature of Indian cricket as it transitions from a national sport to a league-based system, sparked by a guest speaker in my Sports & Globalization class last night. He repped the NBA's international operations branch and kept emphasizing how the advent of league cricket in India was making it easier for his organization to spread its tentacles there. Interestingly enough he mentioned a potential--albeit hush, hush--project between Hindi movie producers and the NBA in the hopes of generating popularity for the sport. Rumor has it that Kobe Bryant already met with a Khan or two. Bollywood Basketball may be closer than you think. But you heard it here first :)

In the meantime--my two cents on the IPL.

Monstrous flames blaze from his leg-guards, while a majestic drumbeat thunders in the background. At center stage is Shah Rukh Khan, kingpin of the commercial Indian film industry, outfitted in a black and yellow Kolkata Knight Rider’s uniform. As an entourage of extras join him, together, they engage in a spirited dance routine, set to an exuberant song entitled, “Korbo, Lorbo, Jit Bore” (Bengali for, “we will do it, fight for it and win it”). The pulsating drums quicken.

Such is the introduction to one of the first music videos to emerge from the Indian Premier League (IPL), and a flamboyant effort to catapult Kolkata’s state-based cricket team to fame. As the video continues, Khan undergoes a dramatic costume change—he trades in the uniform for a shimmering cloak—while the Bengali is replaced with snappy English lyrics: “We’re too hot, we’re too cool, we’re Kolkata, we rule!” It’s a messy amalgam: part folk song, part war cry, with a pinch of Bollywood and the flourish of a cheerleading routine. Is Indian cricket undergoing an identity crisis?

In many ways, the 60-second music video encapsulates the hazy transition that cricket is currently experiencing—in India, at least. Sports and national consciousness have often been linked, whether it is ice hockey and Canada, soccer and Argentina, or baseball and the United States. Throw in a turbulent colonial history and it further complicates the connection, as exemplified by India’s curious and constantly evolving relationship with cricket. What started off as a way of challenging the occupiers at their own game during the days of the Empire soon became a sport that was synonymous with patriotic virtue post-independence, as India attempted to define its national identity on a world stage. It is only appropriate, then, that cricket’s latest avatar comes in the form of intra-national competition, laced with all the symbols of market capitalism, reflected by the eight, state-based team that make up the IPL.

“A new cricket league is trying to spin off India’s colonial inheritance into a money making symbol of a brash, emerging nation,” writes New York Times journalist, Somini Sengupta. Others, including Rajdeep Sardesai, the editor-in-chief of a prominent Indian news channel, have described the sport’s new incarnation as “cricket’s version of tabloid journalism…it is much more about glamour and entertainment than about what happens between the players."


It should be noted that the version of cricket touted by the IPL is referred to as the Twenty20 brand. This brand is a slicker, more TV-friendly counterpart to the dowdy five-day matches introduced by the British. The name, Twenty20 refers to 20 overs—cricket’s version of an inning—granted to each team. It slowly becomes apparent that the ritualistic nature of the five-day version is being whittled down for the convenience of media sponsors and television channels, a sure indicator of the power that market forces have over the structure of a sport that has existed for centuries.

Ultimately, is the Indian Premier League just another product of globalization, the great leveler and homogenizer? Though it has only been in existence for less than a year, it is already ripe with all the ingredients for a marketer’s wet dream—high-powered stars, mammoth sponsors and an audience of thousands. This is not the only time cricket has transformed in shape, responding to the socioeconomic changes around it. One can only hope, though, that rather than getting lost amidst the powerful distractions, the essence of the game remains.

PS: For those of you who think cricket is limited to the Commonwealth, it's slowly making a presence in New York. The NY Times' "10 Best Books of 2008," (a highly anticipated list released yesterday) includes 'Netherland' a novel that highlights the sport against a post 9/11 backdrop.