AGB hero Bashin' Bedi gets stuck into the Quicket:
Bedi averse to Twenty20 cricket
New Delhi (PTI): Indian Premier League may have hit a cord with spectators, but former Indian captain Bishen Singh Bedi on Saturday strongly criticised Twenty20 cricket, saying the game had "reached its lowest possible denominator" in the name of entertainment.
"I must say that cricket has reached its lowest possible denominator. May be it is popular because people have a herd mentality. They tend to follow everything blindly that is new to their eyes and taste without any substance," Bedi said.
"The administrators, the players, the franchisees, the media and the spectators are all responsible for this degeneration of cricket. And I am sorry to use such strong words that they are all collectively "gangraping" cricket, and we think that this is entertainment. In my eyes cricket is the biggest institution for character building," he told Sahara Samay.
Taking stock of the present day scenario in cricket, Bedi came down heavily on sportspersons and not the sport for deviation from its path.
"Cricket is not deviating from its path, rather, the cricketers are deviating from their path. There were times when the game and the player looked merged into one another, such was the dedication for cricket. Now-a-days, it has all vanished and lost into a void. And there are certain reasons behind it."
Thanks via hat-tippin' Boynton.
Is collectively gangraping a tautology? Is Gangraping a tributary of the Ganges in the grape growing region of India I believe it is.
I like yelling out "terrorist!" from my car whenever I drive past a Sikh. They get all annoyed about the ignorant rude pig Aussie but little do they know I know they are not Muslim and the joke is actually on them hahahaha.
Hic.
Carry on.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | 04 June 2008 at 14:18
Fully sikh, dude.
Posted by: Tony T | 04 June 2008 at 21:11
Must admit to having zero interest in the IPL until last week, when I was in India. Being there, I really got into watching it, reading about it etc. It was on TV, in all the papers, being talked about etc.
Posted by: Ian | 04 June 2008 at 22:02
Apparently it's rating in the bazillions.
Posted by: Tony T | 05 June 2008 at 11:13
Bazillions to start with, settled back down to beating everything in its time-slot.
Fascinatin' to see how it sustains itself over a few years....
Posted by: via collins | 05 June 2008 at 13:30
With so many people punting on the Quicket, there will always be a large audience.
Posted by: Tony T | 05 June 2008 at 15:22
Then it's funny on yet another level because since when are all Muslims terrorists anyway? Any Muslims in the vicinity of the Sikh would probably also think I was an ignorant yob.
But they would be wrong I am actually kwite clevarr I know all about the history of the Thugs and I can spell "Mughal Shah Jahan boned Mumtaz Mahal" standing on my ear.
Levels.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | 06 June 2008 at 15:43
Bloody hell, you guys are no fun.
What makes it funny on *yet another* level is that I made all that up. I'm not one to be yelling at intemperate warriors from my car. Good way to get hurt. Post 9/11 there were stories of Sikhs getting abused on the street in the USA... and it got me thinking of the possibilities. Jeez you'd have to be ignorant, eh? I thank Bishan Bedi for opening my eyes to all things turban.
Although I once called an Irish bloke a "daft Taffy b@stard" just to get a reaction. But he was a genial fella, so no risk there.
And I have bin known to yell at roof tilers. "Get down from there!!" in a high pitched tone of voice as if they are doing something wrong. Like in dem Tom Sawyer movies when the farmer catches him raiding his watermelon patch kind of voice.
Levels.
Posted by: Big Ramifications | 18 June 2008 at 15:01