& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Cricket fans in withdrawal
***Overnight, as the CSK captain, Dhoni was embraced by all of Tamil Nadu as one of its own, with one local radio station naming him Veermani, suggesting that he was the allconquering hero. In short, IPL helped develop city loyalties, which could go a long way in broadening mental horizons all around.***
Coomi Kapoor
SO gripped was India by the Indian Premier League (IPL) fever that all three new Hindi film releases during the two-month period flopped at the box-office.
Indians suffered withdrawal symptoms at the end of a twomonth long cricket extravaganza, which had them glued nightly to their TV sets as eight city-based teams vied for the maiden DLF Indian PremierT\venty20 trophy.
Indian sport had never seen such a stupendous spectacle before. The shortened version of the game was the best eye-candy for the entire country. Cutting across socioeconomic boundaries, Indians thronged to the stadiums in tens of thousands daily to witness the razzmatazz on and off the field.
The rest of the country saw the keen tussle between bat and ball on the small screen, which, in most cases, was settled in the dying moments of the game. Such was its pulling power that most public places emptied well before 8pm, the time when the IPL matches began daily in one or the otherofeightmetro centres.
Indeed, a cartoonist in a leading English daily captured the national mood well. Lying prostrate before a television set with a blank screen, the husband is seen telling his wife: "It is 8 o'clock. What do I do now?" Restaurants, clubs, markets, cinema halls reported thin attendance.
Bollywood heaved a sigh of relief on June 1 when the IPL final was played in Mumbai. Producers who
had shelved the release of their films due to the IPL were now readying to schedule them.
The private television channel which had bought the rights to telecast the IPL matches hit the jackpot
More than one hundred million viewers saw the IPL matches on television, the biggest ever audience for any show to this day. As a result, the much-hyped television show by Shah Rukh Khan on a rival television channel failed to attract viewers.
The tournament also said a lot about the popular Indian psyche. Before it started, there were questions whether city-based teams would be able to attract loyal fans since each of the eight teams had players from other cities, and even from foreign countries.
For example, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the national team, led the Chennai Super Kings, having been bought in the players' auction for a whopping Rs 60 million ($1.4 million) for the first three seasons. Dhoni hails from the eastern state of Jharkhand and plays for it in the domestic circuit.
Overnight, as the CSK captain, Dhoni was embraced by all ofTamil Nadu as one of its own, with one local radio station naming him Veermani, suggesting that he was the all-conquering hero.
The South African pacer Makhya Ntini endeared himself to all Tamils when his penetrating bowling demolished the top order of the Punjab King's XI in the semi-final match, and thus booked a berth for
CSK in the final against the Rajasthan Royals.
In short, IPL helped develop city loyalties, which could go a long way in broadening mentalhorizons all around.
The maiden IPL competition also revealed a lot about leadership. Rajasthan Royals, the lowest cost franchise in the tournament at Rs 2.95 billion ($69.17 million), could not have picked up the glittering trophy on the night of June 1 -2 at the jam-packed D.Y. Patil Stadium in Nai, Mumbai, if they were not fortunate in being captained by the retired Australian great Shane Warne.
The RRs had entered the tournament unheralded, with no one giving them an outside chance to emerge victorious at the end of the gruelling 59-match competition.
© The Star AS rights reserved Reprinted by arrangement with Asia News Network.
But Warne did it. He had no iconic players, Indian or foreign. He operated on a shoestring budget. And yet, by the time the tournament was mid-way through, everyone had come to respect his leadership.
It was because Warne, who doubled as a coach for RR, had honed 11 anonymous players into a single fighting unit. Each player was tasked to perform a particular role.
In sharp contrast, the costliest franchises, Mumbai Indians, owned by industrialist Mukesh Arhbanl, Bangalore Royal Challengers, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallaya, and Kolkata Knight Riders of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, fared rather poorly.
Without doubt, IPL Twenty20 is set to change the way cricket is played in the country, and possibly outside, too. Though purists might lament the demise of Test cricket, there is no denying that IPL has brought people back to the stadiums.