Random Musings

I hate a lot of things in this world. You must know that by now. You can add one more to that list. Wondering what it is? Look the not so subtle clues in the Title and above now!

Still haven't got it?

ADVERTISEMENTS-A public promotion of some product or service

But as you know me, I always have a strong case for everything I do. Where exactly does it really piss me off?

• Television- Cricket

When I want to watch a cricket match, I err.. WANT TO SEE THE GODDAMN MATCH!

You know the Indo-Pak match is going to start at 10:00 am IST/EST/PT/GMT?! Depending on which time zone you are in. Fine, you park your ass on the couch at 10:00 sharp with the TV remote and all hyped to see the match. But does that happen? No. It’s a lie. There is some damn pre match analysis going on. Fine, it’s to do with cricket and helps build up the mood. But you see even the pre match show is sponsored by "fair and lovely" which is repeated like 6 billion times (and is like a 10000 x 1000 sq mt billboard behind the charu sharma)

OK WE GET THE MESSAGE! They promise that the game will begin in 10 mins. No 15 mins. No just 5 more. You half outta your mind now. (And did I mention about 10 comm breaks so far, even before it began). While you surf other channels during is ill fated time, you see a bulletin in NDTV saying "India won the toss- choose to field".

You are like "ZOMG!!11 wtf haxxors!?!" and you just realize you have been had. How did you miss the toss but had to endure the idiotic analysis of some dumb female doll on the pre analysis how? Thanks to our good friend addy. The ad was there when the toss took place live. Then you fume at the host abusing him. He then grins and says "Lets take you to what happened at the toss". You now hate his guts.

Finally the match begins. After two overs or so you notice like half the screen is gone. It’s cluttered with ads. From Godrej mats to ford fiestas half the screen is gone. The more irritating version would be the one that jumps and does the salsa on screen in bright orange font.

And you realize after the end of every over, the same ad still is shown? If I see another ford fiesta with abishek bachan on it, I will gag him in the trunk of the car and run it down a cliff. Two birds in one push. Whets worse than that? Ads which repeat continuously. I will never buy your product Vicks Vaporab.

Then comes the lunch session where one team is done batting/fielding. Then the analysis with more emphasis on ads then the game. For every highlight of the game we get a 'highlights package'

1. Aviva Insurance- Safe hands
2. Hero Honda- Star of the session
3. MRF- Master Blaster
4. Hitachi A/cs- Cool moments

Really..Is there no damn limit...every small little thing has to be filled with ads?

Finally during the fag end of games play with like 60 runs from 10 overs with 4 wickets or something exciting like that. You notice that actually have not seen the 1st and the last ball for the past hour or so. Thanks to the idiot operator's poor timing in balancing the max no of ads and cricket coverage. So basically, you miss anything exciting happening in the 1st and last ball of an over. Thanks to addy.

I have really lost interest in watching cricket matches because of this. It finally comes down to the money. BCCI India is the richest cricket board in the world with a whopping net worth of 220 crs!

More addys--> More Moneys---> All happys. But not me.

Posted by Raghav on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 7:12 AM | Permalink