Which team are you with ?

Written by Ankur Khare, Bangalore

Sachin, Shahrukh, Lee, Akhtar, Symonds, Bhajji, Mallya, Ambani, Warne, Murli, Gilly, Veeru, Jaysurya all at one place. Fireworks are a must. Well not neccesarily. On the forefront it does seem it's the quality of players, teams and power of BCCI that made IPL a big success unlike ICL.

But if you go a little deep, you got to get impressed by the way IPL tournament was promoted and packaged. Was difficult to get this league thing accepted in India, after all which team a common man will support? He likes Sachin, but he likes Sehwag too, he likes Yuvraj but also Dhoni. The Biggest challenge!!! Get this format accepted. But How...how to sell it ??

But then came the ads and promos.

Bollywood !!! It does sell cricket. A specially designed catchy promo was the "Kab aayega ranjan aur manu ka baap?" It was a typical ad that promoted the tried and tested bollywood masala, twins, father missing, mother taunted and teased by society…and finally coming the "Aaa gaya manu-ranjan(implying manoranjan) ka baap…DLF IPL CUP".

It was not that cute little ad that everyone watches and forgets even the name of the product...it did give the desired effect, created the curiosity with words...'kab aayega …kab aayega...ranjan aur manu ka baap' and then flats it out with a very comic ending. People criticized that advertisement a lot but the important thing is they discussed and that was the idea. To make it a topic for tea time discussion.

After all which team will he support and on what basis, what logic. No country, no state, nothing to identify with. Then again came the ads for the rescue.

The dentist asking the patient "which team are u with " and poor patient not knowing the team of dentist replies innocently Delhi Daredevils and then in a low voice doctor reveals that he supports Kolkata Riders. Nurse suggesting doctor to get one tooth removed of the patient. "Ek kyon paanch daant nikaliye...kaafi daring aaadmi hai...daredevils"...was the punch line. Then came a series of promos which created a curiosity and a support for different teams and in turn the tournament.

Some lady blaming a guy of teasing just because he was a Mumbai Indian supporter and she a Bangalore Royal Challenger supporter, another place a boy not giving a place to an aged fellow just because boy is a Chennai Super King's supporter and the aged guy is wearing a band of Deccan Charger.

"Which team are you with...?" was the buzz word....who are you supporting...No logic was required. These ads were conveying the idea, forget the logic, pick any team with emotions and support with passion.

90 % of the reason why I am watching IPL is these ads only and rest is obviously cricket. But saying that ads alone made the tournament a big success is too big a statement to be made in a society that is not used to be called easily influenced specially by cheap ads and therefore I will leave it at that.

Till the society starts accepting facts, keep enjoying the front foot of daredevils and dhol of Punjabi kings XI. And yes don't forget asking "Which team are you with...?"