Zee’s best soap

Aditi Tandon says the ICL tournament, which had the ingredients of a riveting TV soap, managed to grab eyeballs of cricket lovers

ZEE Entertainment head Subhash Chandra has just pulled off his best act. Given the media baron’s fetish for novelty, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) inaugural in Panchkula may not have come as much of a surprise. But then it did, with the event shaping up as "more than just a game". It was in fact Zee’s finest soap to date, its very first episode starring Kareena Kapoor. The cast only got better as the tourney progressed, often forcing viewers’ attention from the field to the stage where Bollywood stars and political hotshots took turns to sing paeans to the ICL, Chandra’s answer to the BCCI.

So when Kareena and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav walked the same stage for ICL’s sake on November 30 — first day of the match — cricket lovers sat up and listened. For them, it was an interesting scenario — with Kareena dancing to chartbusters on the one hand and Yadav batting for Chandra on the other. Present also on Day 1 was Samajwadi Party’s loyalist Amar Singh who, some say, helped the ICL gather some stardust for the show (of course with help from Subroto Roy of Sahara, whose aircraft Amar Singh boarded to reach Panchkula from Delhi where he attended the Parliament session that day).

The presence of big people on the ICL’s big day made all the difference to both the game and Essel group chairman Chandra, who exulted, "The BCCI had been saying that the ICL will not take off. Well, it has taken off." As he prided in ICL’s star-studded inaugural, Lalu Yadav chipped in like a true friend: "Chandraji has made a huge effort to promote regional cricketing talent. It must be supported. I invite the ICL to play in any railway stadium they want." Interestingly, Lalu Yadav does not play cricket, but his son Tejaswi does. Playing under 19 from Bihar these days, he is not joining the ICL yet. "Tejaswi will go where his destiny takes him," Lalu quipped, when asked if he would want his son to join the ICL.

Politicians apart, real entertainment during the cricket tourney came from the Bollywood brigade, that marched on Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium on every single day when the match was on. So you had Yana Gupta, the sizzling Czech, beating Raakhi Sawant hands down with her item-number presentations, specially crafted for the ICL.

But she still has stage presence, which is why ICL got her, the way they got Mika, a perpetual self-admirer who loves talking Raakhi Sawant. "Whether or not she admits it, I am her godfather. I have given her the status she enjoys. I was supposed to be part of Big Brother along with her but I was busy at that time," blurted the singer, who is part of filmmaker Sanjay Gupta’s just-released Dus Kahaniyaan.

Thanks to Zee, the film got a huge pre-release publicity from ICL grounds where Diya Mirza and Jimmy Shergill were seen wooing cricket fans. And no, the duo was not alone in this film-cum-cricket-promotion game, which came handy for all. Even Ajay Devgan, Irfaan Khan and Ayesha Takia found it hard to ignore ICL’s offer of attending the December 16 finale and in the bargain getting a chance of promoting their forthcoming film Sunday. They were present for the wrap-up, and were busy talking the ICL and Sunday, courtesy Chandra, who has added a fresh chapter to Indian cricketing history by mixing cricket and entertainment to lure crowds.

Some would say the concept has been borrowed from International Cricket Council that first used it to pep up the Twenty20 world cup series. But then, borrowing, too, is an art and borrowing with perfection a bigger art. The fact is that the ICL tried a new format and succeeded in pulling it off. What’s better, it gave the audiences variety in a brand new viewing experience that came dotted with performances of Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan, Malaika Arora and Tanushree Dutta, who would charge a fortune to make an appearance otherwise. From the margins, smaller performers like henna artistes, ventriloquists and mask-men added a personal touch to make cricketing moments special for viewers, who enjoyed being pampered from a distance.

So far, Chandra’s cricket soap has sustained public interest. Whether its sequels are as interesting remains to be seen. The inaugural alone has cost Essel group several crores. And sponsors, after all, are far and few`85just as (Bollywood) stars are.

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