Tuesday, April 2, 2013

IPL 6 - Sirf Dekhne Ka Nahi

IPL 6 is round the corner. Today is its opening ceremony. Tomorrow onwards for  a period of almost 2 months, Indian Cricket fans will have something to look forward every evening. If I remember correct, DLF was major sponsorer till IPL-5, but IPL-6 is sponsored by Pepsi. 
Many other things have also changed while moving from IPL-5 to IPL-6. One major change is the team itself. Earlier Deccan Chargers doesn't exist any more. Though Hyderabad is still one of the host places, but the team owner has been changed. New team is owned by Sun group and the new team name is SunRisers Hyderabad. There was some issue with Pune Warriors also about the venue located in Pune. Apparently it was about to be moved to Kanpur, but then it was settled down and Pune Warriors is still in the run.
Many of favorite players are out of the competition. One prominent name is Saurav Ganguly who was a big reason why KKR and later on Pune Warriors were able to attract the crowd. Another interesting development is the inclusion of Ricky Ponting in Mumbai Indians as a Captain. It will interesting to watch Ponting and Tendulkar play together. A major blow I guess came to Delhi Dare Devils when one of their players Jesse Ryder got in to a brawl and went in to coma. 
On advertisement side for IPL-6, somehow it appears little cold. Except for Chennai SuperKings I did not came across any advertisements for any other franchisee.  There are some commercials making rounds for IPL -6 in general with Farah Khan at the center teaching people of different backgrounds like office people, family, kitty party ladies, how to celebrate when ever there is any instant of cheering like somebody hitting boundary or six or a wicket falls. These ads are not as novel as they were for earlier IPL seasons but still Farah Khan in her style has pulled these ads. With these ads she is introducing a music piece, we are going to keep hearing for next two months and a set of funny steps which I am not sure how many people are going to follow in stadium. It will be fun to watch if all audience perform that step together.
IPL-6 is taking off today followed by first match tomorrow between Kolkota Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Dare Devils (DDD). This is the last season of IPL where all players remain with their home teams. For next IPL season, all teams will be dissolved and fresh teams will picked through new auctions. So, if you follow a team because of a particular player, this is the last chance to cheer for him. Probably, he won't be playing next season or may be for a rival team.
Follow these links for commercials:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19L_EiD1VA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYnOxwU7Gdk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MQ4Jbb_nns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U53z17c88mU

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