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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

IPL 5 glitz comes a cropper - more traffic woes feared


The IPL Extravaganza is all set to begin from today – 76 matches starting with CSK taking on MI at Chennai today.. This post is not about who would walk alongside Murali Vijay – will it be Anirudha Srikkanth or Abhinav Mukund or some makeshift opener in the form of Saha or some other foreign player ?

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It is a show of mass commercialism - Bells Road entry is painted yellow – yes CSK is painting the place for IPL.  The 2012 Indian Premier League season -  IPL 5  is all set to begin today.  Chennai Super Kings will take on Mumbai Indians at Chepauk at 8 pm.  From today, till 20th May 12, there will be 72 matches (continuously on all days) and then 4 matches culminating with Finals on 27th May 12 at Chennai.

The first thought that strikes common man, is how these would affect his way of commuting.  The fragile traffic system is already bewildered by the changes in traffic in Anna Salai.  Now on day of IPL matches, there would be more diversions, adding to the traffic woes.  There are to be 8 matches at Chepauk – some starting at 4 pm and some at 8 pm.  

It is reported that Traffic Police have made diversions which will be in place from 1 pm to 7 pm for matches commencing at 4 pm and from 5pm to 11.30 pm  for the 8 pm matches.  During such times, Bells Road will be made a one-way stretch with entry from WallajahRoad and no entry from Bharathi Salai.  No vehicles, except MTC buses and vehicles with valid passes,will be allowed from Kamarajar Salai towards Bharathi Salai.  This sure would add to the chaos and disrupt the traffic more, bringing in difficulties to old and other commuters – but when it is cricket festivity, does anybody really care ?

Sure, you know that besides  big names like MS Dhoni, George Bailey (who captained Aussies in T20), Mike Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, there are others like Saha, Boulinger, Hinfenhaus, Suraj Randiv, Kulasekhara, Badrinath, Murali Vijay, Anirudha Srikanth, Abhinav Mukund, Du Plessis, Scott Styris, Albie Morkel all play for CSK

There are also other lesser knowns like – Sudeep Tyagi, Yo Mahesh, Joginder, Shadab Jakati, Vasudevadas, Ganapathi Vignesh… but more than Cricket, IPL is more of glam and marketing.  For a season of Cricketing, they marketed with glamour yesterday at YMCA – with people buying costly tickets to watch the inaugural show !!  - it was not what it was touted to be !!

The glamour quotient was at an all-time high as a galaxy of stars, led by megastar Amitabh Bachchan, descended at the at the YMCA College of Physical Education and set the stage on fire with their performance.  Though there were many glam stars, it appeared that the crowd was not entirely on their feet as the event was sort of a non-starter.    Amitabh, started the proceedings for the evening with a rendition of a poem 'If I were to be born again', written by renowned lyricist Prasoon Joshi. – the Colonial Cousins Hariharan and Leslie Lewis  did not churn out great stuff.  It was away from Cricket, venue was also away from the playing arena and the Opening Nite did not quite live up to the expectations.  Salman never a hit down south.   Prabhu deva has courted more controversies of late and not as flexible as he was in his yesteryears.

Priyanka Chopra show even with the CSK Team appeared a flop show as even ‘chennaikku whilstle podu’ also did not arouse the expected sound.   The show of Kareena Kapoor lacked fizz and was damp squib.  Ravi Shastri walked stiff and talked about the spirit and the pledge !!!  Katy Perry dance looked a scene straight from any Telegu movie.   Rajeev Shukla spoke of what  makes one look forward to Cricket after the beginning and hopefully this is not what he wanted to promote.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

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