I had to visit my family doctor yesterday for my daughter. The doc was busy on the phone, arranging for his ticket for IPL. He told me this is the fifth IPL match this season which he will be going to see in the stadium. What followed later amazed me. He has spend 35000 rupees including the current match for which he was making arrangement for. No the tickets are not priced at 7000 each…he is buying a 1500 rupees ticket for 7000 rupees. I was not able to stop myself from asking him…who is earning the extra 5500 rupees. For that he had no reply. His argument was that instead of spending on some tour he enjoys seeing the matches live, inspite of spending 350 rupees for cable tv on which he receives the matches. I can frankly understand the wishes of a diehard cricket fan to see a few matches live…but this as per my thinking is excessive!!!!
Cricketers are ready to be used as a commodity and sell themselves…why not …they are earning in crores. Team owners are spending crores to become franchisees….the BCCI is earning crores from selling the teams and advertisements….and the public money is being used to provide Police Protection for the games. Public money is being used to purchase the tickets. Public money is being used to pay for the advertisements shown on the TV. Companies are not paying for the advertisements from their pockets…..thats a fact. Still with every break we are showered with advertisements…asking us to spend more money on their products…or make them earn more by sending SMSes as to what will happen next.
This is big business….IPL business….the Indian Popat Lal business….
