Let the IPL home theatre begin

Cricket in India took off to become the Godzilla it is today arguably not because of its growing success but because of its super success at making a connection with people. A very noisy, reactive, emotive people. The cucumber sandwiches and beer crowd gave way to a flag-waving, face-painted raucous lot. A prissy ‘gentleman’s game’ became the ‘people’s sport’, the spectator’s spectator sport. So, keeping this vibrant, subcontinental sport of cricket-watching in mind, how ‘turning on’ will IPL 2020 be, being played bereft of any spectators at three empty stadia in the UAE?

International football already test-drove the Covid-instigated ‘no-supporters-at-the-ground’ car. Knowing that people can now only follow matches on their screens (television or phones), canned ‘crowd noise’ has filled the vacuum of the eerie silence and echoes from match venues. Starting today, IPL will do the same. But what can’t be replicated (read: fudged) are the images from the stands — a much-followed spectacle by itself. To make up for that absence, we suggest socially distanced living-room viewers to take up the challenge and make the requisite noise and mandatory gestures. Social media will help homebound spectators to spectate on fellow spectators to keep the necessary non-cricketing cricket spectacle going.