Fake IPL Fans

Today was the last day of our examinations. It was a tiring week for all of us; very little sleep, skipped lunches and  diabolical university exam timings conspired to ensure that we were one day away from dead.

But nobody really wanted to go home and we decided to stay at the college as long as the chowkidar allowed us to. Thats when this acquaintance of ours walks up to us with somebody who can be best described as  a tanned version of Yuvraj Singh. As I don't remember his name, we will stick to calling him Yuvraj. So, Yuvraj  asked whether we were interested in watching the next IPL match at Ahmedabad. He said he would provide us free entry and guaranteed that we would be stationed close to the pavillion. He even offered us free food. The only condition was that  we had to do wear the uniforms that will be provided to us and cheer wildly for the team whose uniform we were sporting. Would've loved to go. Free food + Free cricket is not a combo you can easily beat, but other plans were already made for the day and we had to refuse. We offered him chai and he sat down to talk with us. He later revealed that he had been delegated the task of collecting 50 players: 25 for the Rajasthan Royals and 25 for Chennai. He said he had no clue why the teams were doing this. But then it was good money and he was not the type to bother asking too many questions.

But i still wonder why the teams had to resort to tactics like these. From what I can see on T.V, the IPL seems to be a roaring success. All the stadiums seem to be packed. The only reason i could think of is probably little to no sale of team merchandise. Allegiances have been formed between fans and franchisees but loyalty still has some way to go. So, maybe the organizers feel that people will eventually start buying these uniforms when they get the impression that most people show up at venues wearing these team uniforms. Also notice how the cameramen seem to focus on people who show up in the uniforms. This may be at the behest of the team owners.

Image via Wikipedia