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Is there any limit to the commercialisation of cricket?

Karbonn Kamaal Catch, DLF Maximum, Citi Moment of Success – you may really wonder whether I am talking of cricket or advertising for Karbonn Mobiles, DLF or Citigroup but that’s the state of affairs of cricket in this country especially IPL – The Tamasha of Commercialisation of Cricket! After every six, catch, four or any good piece of cricketing skills, one keeps hearing the commentators saying – for eg: “And thats a Karbonn Kamal Catch!!”. Give us a break guys! We know you are paid for saying this and we know its crass commercialisation but the least we wanna hear is a catch being called Karbonn Kamal..God!

An MRF emblem or symbol which is there at every ground is shown every few minutes and the commentators keep blabbering something or the other such as some players being brand ambassadors or it being the academy for cricket in the country blah blah…Common guys! At least 90% if not 100% watching the game knows what MRF stands for and its whole story. The least you can do is keep quiet when it is shown and talk more about the cricket going on, on the ground rather than such crap. Then there are the so called “strategic time-outs” which are 2.5 half minute breaks to include as many ads as possible. Do teams really need these timeouts? I am sure the captains can give the best answer. Many times at these strategic timeouts, one or the other team is almost in complete disarray. The only strategy which they can have then is how fast to win or how fast to avoid losing.

The worst of all is incorporating advertisements in between balls! Yes guys you heard it right! Be it INQ from Aircel, Maxx Mobile, Blackberry etc, Mr Lalit Modi has become probably the first guy to incorporate ads in between the match! OMG!!!! Isn’t that the limit?

Then there are the IPL parties, best catch taken by a person who would get a Karbonn Phone and 25,000 bucks and what more. My point is making money, building partnerships, signing deals and things like these are fine. But why spoil the game? I am sure people will say why am I watching the game. But guys wouldn’t you agree that such things are making the cricket purely for money? Even in world cricket such things don’t happen.

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16 Comments

  1. Abhishek

    Good One. Though i feel its become part and parcel of the IPL. See no harm to cricket. Everyones a winner at the end of the day.

    • aseemrastogi2

      I am not saying it harms cricket..But what I said was that a limit to commericialisation is needed..I mean common why call it Karbonn Kamal Catch or DLF maximum or Citi Moment of Sucess..sponsoring something like this is fine but calling it that sounds dumb and stupid!!

  2. Aisha

    Hey, You need to see Super Bowl then. IPL is India’s Super bowl where a 30 seconds commercial cost 2.6 million US dollars. This world is going completely towards commercialization. You know jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai. Everything is a business. Today I went to a seminar where they were talking about how employee value has gone down. Employers are looking at how much commercial value a person has. Not hardworking ability or loyalty. So, Welcome to the World of Commercialization.

  3. Kamesh

    Good article mate ! But see the advent of technology has sounded profits for big corporates ..when we hear of news like a human billboard ..i dont think a show like the movie “the truman Show” is far from reality Companies are willing to do anything to get their brand into the cutomers home ..its all brands now .. and yes …. companies are now looking at brand /commercial value a person has … more to say ..is he sellable or promotable ..thats the difference ..more so …. get people to talk about the brand ..forget the cricket .. forget the ethics

  4. Anita

    commercialisation brings smile to everyone’s face – corporates, players, tv channels etc. Even the audience is getting amused with the phrases like Karbonn Kamaal etc.

  5. nice article!

    but yes commercialization do not harm us infact its giving us entertainment so i personally have no problem watever they call..

    • aseemrastogi2

      my friend, i dont have a problem with commercialisation, the problem is with their being no limit to it…thts y i feel there should be a regulatory body and mechanism to prevent instances like the latest Tharoor – Modi spat!

  6. Raveendra Singh

    What about the players? The average salary of IPL players is second only to NBA now.. More than EPL where they play throughout the year as opposed to just 2 months in IPL’s case.!!
    Still nothing bad about it.
    t20 is pure entertainment.. just hope it doesn’t totally kill 50-50 matches. it’s looking like that though.

    • aseemrastogi2

      T20 is good entertainment..even commercialisation is good..but then there should be some kind of regulatory mechanism which can help put a check on the finances of the teams and other things…

  7. Ethics are involved into every aspect of our day-to-day life. And most of the times these things exist at the level of the business system which an individual or an organisation can not change single-handedly. Commercialization of Cricket also falls under that category. Governing bodies of sports should self-impose limits on the extent of commercialisation of any sport. Only then, we (spectators) can have a sigh of relief from such stuff.

    • aseemrastogi2

      yeah completely agree with u…im not at all against commercialisation..but srsly there has to be some limit to it

  8. AKR

    Nice blog….

  9. I dont think that commercialisation have any bad effect on cricket but it should be in limit. The commercialisation enhance our enthusiasim about cricket.

  10. Commercialisation is a kind of entertainment

  11. nikunj rathi

    gr8 blog.i 2 support dat cricket is nw only the way of hw 2 earn only money n fame.

    • aseemrastogi2

      Hey nice to know that you liked my blog. Sadly cricket has become all about money and commercialisation 🙁

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