IPL 2013: The Drama That’s Got It All

IPL 2013 is on, and like a classic fart, its smell is everywhere. More ads are featuring the teams, the players and the celebrity owners. Shah Rukh Khan, Kolkata Knight Rider, Dhoni, Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super Kings, SRK again, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors and so on. Live updates of IPL, match details and schedules are on a bunch of websites hoping to draw people to them. Media is never tired of showing IPL folks. Raging debates between KKR lovers and Delhi Daredevils fans, Shah Rukh fans and Sourav Ganguly fans, Kohli and Gambhir, T-20 lovers and cricket puritans, I-T officials and franchise stakeholders are taking place. So we here can’t just ignore the drama.

Who has the IPL roped in? Cricketers, of course, but also celebrities, politicians, corporates and finally the public, the last category being the only one that isn’t getting any money out of it. We haven’t forgotten the involvement of law enforcement agencies, and the stakeholders surely haven’t as so many of them are getting constantly raided by I-T officials. Allegations of proxy stakes of politicians and offshore money in the franchises have got a lot of hot people bothered. And tax benefits are cute but not to all, and some are making quite a fuss over it.

And the cricket part? Yep, there’s that, amid the money, glamour, corruption, quarrels, racism and sexism over cheerleaders and cries of the water-electricity-crisis-facing states. This one thing of the IPL is that post-IPL, there have been more opportunities to local cricketers. New cricketers are getting recognition through the IPL. Money and stardom are becoming accessible to a few more. The number of foreign players has been raised from 8 to 10 per team, and the foreign players that are roped in are usually off their launchpads, so we’ll see how the IPL goes for non-celebrity players in the coming seasons.

So for now, be entertained, because that seems to be about all we’ll get out of it.

“Facebook users could swing the results in 160 Lok Sabha constituencies”

The latent potential that is social networking, Facebook being one of the most major tools of the same.

One of the main advantages of social networking sites is that they allow people who would otherwise have never met or known each other, actually get acquainted. It helps to organize the powerless, it fosters solidarity, it favors unity. It also dispels misconceptions and myths, while only bolstering others.

But if used properly and democratically, social networking has enormous prospects to yield useful dividends.

Some excerpts from The Hindu article:

A study, a copy of which is with The Hindu, has, for the first time, shown how social media can affect the results of the next Lok Sabha elections. Conducted by the IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the research claims that results in over 150 constituencies could be decided by ‘Facebook users, making them the newest vote-bank with the power to shape Indian politics.’

Regarding the limitations, those conducting the study informed:

Admitting that the ‘approach may seem simple to the point of being simplistic,’ it lists out the caveats. It does not factor in whether the social media users in each constituency are active. It does not examine other factors like ‘anti-incumbency or political realignments.’ And while Facebook may be a common medium, those using it are a heterogeneous lot.

However, researchers say their limited objective is to assess the ‘clout of the social media … and if Facebook users will have an impact, if they so choose.’