A board outside a tiny restaurant in the small town of Vaniyampadi, enroute to Chennai, reads: ‘Watch World Cup live on big screen'. It wasn't a place I would have normally eyed with interest, but the sign-board surely did the trick.
On the eve of the India-England clash on Sunday, a young girl was telling her mother that she simply had to get the autograph of all the players.
She couldn't wait for another 15 years, she pleaded, when India hosts the World Cup next.
Her mother was thinking of her daughter's Math exam on Monday.
In Chennai, a doctor finished his night shift on Saturday, and was passionate enough to drive down to Bangalore the next morning. Weary eyed and sleep-deprived, he caught the India-England tie (pun intended) at the stadium.
Shopaholic Nidhi was heard blasting her husband for wanting to shell out Rs 8,000 for a ticket. Her lament was that the money should be spent on ‘more meaningful' things such as clothes and jewellery.
From the marketing stand point, for the slowly dwindling anti-World Cup camp which believes IPL-3 was bigger than the WC – and that IPL-4 will also be – these should be tell-tale evidence that the mother of all cricketing contests continues to command fervent following in the sub-continent.
The IPL, with all its drama, does create a buzz, but I wonder if we'd hear of cricket-stricken souls chasing sports journos for passes – they are willing to see ‘even' an Ireland game, mind you.
It would be interesting to see if the fourth edition of the IPL manages to sustain interest given that it starts barely a week after the World Cup. The cricketers will be a fatigued lot and the same can be said of viewers.
The World Cup too will see some amount of fatigue, especially during the group matches, but when the dust settles down and the real contest (read knock-out stage) begins, audience interest is bound to peak. And even if one were to argue that the madness of previous World Cup tournaments is missing in 2011, there are enough reasons to rejoice. It's good for the game that it remains a passion and not an obsession.