IPL : An emotion (& an artwork)

Years ago, I had two TV obsessions: IPL and Zee Saregama. As time went by, my interest dwindled in them. I remember the inaugural season and how the late Shane Warne captained Rajasthan Royals to be the champions. I enjoyed fully well when the then Hyderabad team Deccan Chargers clinched the trophy. Enjoyed the histrionics over the years of Virat Kohli, A.B. De Villiers, MSD, David Warner, Chris Gayle, Bhuvi, Malinga, Rashid Khan and so many more. But then there was a ban, the number of teams increased and though the interest was still there, it was not the match to match, ball to ball, glued to the screen kind of interest. Until this year.

It was on a late evening in March that I sat with a bowl of haleem to watch a few overs of the SRH-MI game and I was hooked. Both to the game and the tournament. Felt good to see India’s richest family members sitting subdued. A shade of schadenfraude in me, maybe. Kavya jumped and danced like a kindergärtner. Records started tumbling. The IPL fan in me was fully back.

What a ride it was! Even in the matches SRH lost. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. Flashes by Heinrich Klaasen and sometimes by Nitish Reddy. After every game, there would be a buzz on Facebook with folks sharing instant reactions, surprises, analysis, joy, grief etc. Some on Facebook friends’ profiles, some on the SRH page. I interacted frequently with Ajay Pulipati and Sarita Agarwal. The SRH Facebook page team was the invisible motivator. Constantly posting about SRH’s achievements, keeping the fans motivated and keeping up the chin that we are different. I remember after one game, I went over to the SRH page and their post had 850 comments in about 10 minutes. Not likes. 850 comments. IPL became an emotion.

The good run came to an end in the finals. Kavya turned her back to the camera and cried. But I didn’t feel too bad about not winning the cup. I felt that the only team that could stop KKR this year was RCB. And they screwed up, as usual. From a well-balanced perspective, KKR was the best team this IPL. They truly deserved to be winners. SRH is a great team but not a wholesome team. They are well deserved runners up.

Fans never understood why Glenn Philips was not played even in one game. It’s widely anticipated SRH will retain Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Henrich Klaasen and Pat Cummins. Whatever be the composition of the team, they need a Chennai strategy. They lost both the games with Chennai and the finals at Chennai. Lots of lessons to learn. I’m sure they will come back blazing next year and hopefully lift the cup.

Here’s a portrait of Kavya Maran that I drew on my iPad. Dominant hues are orange-red and black, obviously. This was the first illustration I drew using Procreate but sharing second. I shared my second illustration first, in my previous post. This post need a good write-up and was either busy or lazy to share until today.