Like many cricket lovers, I was also rooting for the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday and was delighted when they won. But the question is: Why would a Bengali living in Mumbai for 26 years back a Jaipur team led by a fat, 40ish, out of work cricketer accused in the past of binge drinking, sexual misconduct, chronic infidelity and taking banned substances?
When Shane Warne came to play the IPL, most people believed his best cricketing years were behind him and, given the fact that his was the only team with a firang captain and few known players, the Rajasthan Royals got no media attention. The little it did get finally was when BCCI rapped them on the knuckles for not spending enough on acquiring players. The team was considered a non-starter, having paid the lowest franchise fee in the IPL, $67 million, half of what the top teams spent. On top of that, they hired no expensive players. So everyone wrote them off even before the first ball was bowled.
It's wonderful to see how they proved everyone wrong. The much hyped IPL teams with overpaid stars and icon players now lie in the dustbin of history. Rajasthan Royal's underpaid captain (Warne's fees were less than a third of Dhoni's $1.5 million) and his under-rated players proved how unimportant all the money, all the hype is. They showed us that winning is not about big bucks and rich sponsors. It's about keeping your eye on the ball, focussing on victory. The man who led them, Warne has proved that age and weight, the current fetishes of Gen Y, don't add up to much. Not even in sports. What counts is being able to forge a team that works as a winning combination. Yes, that's why I am a Warne fan. That's why millions of cricket fans cheered him and his boys on Sunday, driven by the same thrill—of watching the underdogs win the most coveted trophy in cricketing history.
If you look at the final stats you'll find that the best players in the IPL were, in fact, the least paid. Shane Watson, Yunus Patel, Sohail Tanvir, who won the match for Warne, are not even regulars on their national teams. Warne was not just the lowest paid captain in the IPL. He was paid less than players in his own team Kaif, Patel and Graeme Smith though Wisden has ranked him among the century's top five players and he holds more cricketing records than anyone else out there. But no, Warne didn't see this as an insult. He came to India to play a league and he's going back having won the trophy and proving that nothing matters more than playing the game well. Money, age, weight, celebrity status, media hype are all irrelevant.
This is the first lesson to be learnt from the IPL, supposedly a game only for fit young men driven by the gold rush. And this lesson, we must realise, applies in almost every other space where money and ageism is trying to shut doors on talent. I was addressing some analysts last week and this is exactly what I said about Bollywood.
That big stars, expensive locations, ostentatious sets, insane production budgets and huge publicity don't make hit movies. What makes a movie successful is the passion, the dedication, the genius of the quiet, understated director and his fiercely committed producer.
That's why Tashan didn't work. In fact, I believe that big stars, big budgets and monster publicity is often a cover up for flawed scripts and producers who don't know what they are doing.
As in cricket, so in movies, the ultimate call is on talent.
Everything else is a sideshow. Unfortunately, those who do not have talent, think they can substitute it with lots of money. So they boast about their contracts, their sponsorships, their huge fees and the size of their budgets. But audiences are no longer prepared to be fooled. No one trusts a gold digger even if he's the biggest star.
Everyone adores the underdog, fighting and winning against all odds.
Be it in cricket or movies or any other profession. Would you choose a doctor because he charges the highest fees?
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