A fresh controversy was sparked last night when an entire over was not broadcast in favour of sponsored advertisements.
It was the fifteenth over of KXIP v KKR. Yuvraj Singh was finally playing sport on-field and as soon as the last delivery of the over was bowled, IPL credo of selling Videocon, Maxx mobiles, Pepsi, Vodafone etc. came into effect. Nothing unusual until this point.
IPL as a format certainly has had time adherence at its core. Pavilions have been abandoned for ‘dug-outs’, advertisements are abruptly discontinued for return to LIVE telecast. Ads have even been shortened to be shown between deliveries on the in-field screen. Captains are charged USD 20000 for slow over rate. In such a milieu of urgency when you leave at 15.0 overs and return only at 16.0 with no hint of 15.1 to 15.5 you know something’s gone amiss.
What added intrigue to the event was that not a single spectator knows what happened in that over. Apparently, none were watching cricket. When asked about the fifteenth over, post match, Mr. Utkesh Vijender wasn’t even aware that an over had gone missing. He however, spoke at length about Priety Zinta and ended with “I love you Priety. I have sponsored bat- ball for my buildings under arm car park cricket team. They let me be capten now. The call me UV bhaiyya UV bhaiyya also. Party?”
The missing six deliveries are now being called the ‘IPL Ghost over’. One of the cricket’s modern mysteries, The Ghost Over’ is second only to the source of Srishanths infinite puberty.
Yet, it is not difficult acceding to this apathy towards the missing over and by extension, to cricket. When asked to recall those six minutes, Anant Anand reminisced speaking with Danny Morrison instead. Danny had climbed a tree outside the stadium, where Anant was watching the match from with his family of seven, to get his views on the match. Tony Mbangwa was similarly seen hanging from an MRF blimp to get an IPL byte from a low-flying chartered aircraft. Other usual distractions included cheerleaders and the ‘Zonked Elephant’ horn played at regular intervals. Thus it is easy to see people getting distracted from uniformed folk whacking and chasing a sphere, something they’ve been doing for over a hundred years now.
Shockingly, there’s no official footage of the missing over. Even the TV cameras were switched off. The only footage available is from ‘run out cams’. We now know that at least 2 singles were taken, bowler overstepped once and both batsmen adjusted their jock strap at least seven times. Speculation is rife as to what unfolded in those minutes. A cheerleader wardrobe malfunction has been mentioned a few times. Uploaded sms shows the malfunction exposing three layers of morality underclothing. Footage from an in-session Indian Parliament is known to be more arousing than this sms.
Finally, when Lalit Modi was quizzed about the over he said “‘The Ghost Over’ has been a success. Response has been overwhelming. We are working on the finer aspects and will try to include it in every match from next season. ”
The controversy ended.
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Posts: 4
Reply #4 on : Mon April 05, 2010, 23:33:15