BATTING FOR THE IPL (And all other sports events being telecast live!)


Never mind the announcement of the 2014 Champions League Twenty20 to be held in India from 17 September to 6 October 2014; nor the news that Lasith Malinga will represent Mumbai Indians over the Southern Express side he led to victory in Sri Lanka; or the great Ian Botham saying that the IPL was “too powerful” for cricket’s long-term good as he called for the lucrative domestic tournament to be scrapped. There had been a clamour from a section of politicians and cricketers in India too for a ban the IPL! But this is not about the IPL! For you see, I have great valid reasons to bat for the IPL.

Everything went wrong just before the IPL-7! Ok, just one thing, to be specific; our TV just blacked out. This was not the first time it had just stopped; it had happened on New Year’s Eve as well. My husband was away on work and our daughter had come home for the holidays. We hoped to usher in the New Year together, watching the programmes telecast on TV. So out went a call to our mechanic, who claimed to be very far away from our place. But he offered me a solution. I have got several such calls during this week, he said, I think that the TV must have gone very cold. Ma’am, just keep your TV warm by covering it with a thick sheet, and soon, I am sure you will be ale to watch it!

My first thought…..this can happen only in India! In Chennai December temperature hovers around 21°C!  I decided to test this preposterous claim. I wanted to believe that some desperate acts lead to desperate results! And lo and behold, we were able to watch the programme that night!
  
Of course, as soon as my husband returned from his trip, I told him that we indeed had to get a new TV set. Ours was more than a decade old, and Thompson had stopped manufacturing TV sets under this brand name, so getting it serviced did not make much sense. As usual, my words fell on deaf years till three months later, one April evening, when it went blank.  Once again I tried the same remedy; it did not work this time. Our Thompson TV set had stopped, short, never to go again!

It was a week day, and I was really happy not to have the temptations of the TV. Of course, I missed my doze of entertainment, the news, travel and investigation channels. Also the need to unwind with the idiot box was difficult to ignore.

I did not have to wait long. There was unusual activity as I returned home from school one day that April morning and there, the pride of place in the drawing room being  occupied by a 28inch Full HD - LED –DTH Television. The IPL season was about to commence. So every time I enjoy a program on TV, I am grateful to all the sports channels which go live- for the full HD –LED-DTH experience! The practice of sport is a human right, why worry about Fairness and Fair Play! 

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