The recently held Celebrity Cricket League matches brought to light the fallibilities of our silver screen heroes. For once there were no retakes and this showed the bewildered fans the ‘human’ side of the larger than life heroes! With all the practice they put in, barring a few who were familiar and abreast of the game, the rest merely looked to make up the numbers.
It must have shocked quite a few spectators to see a veritable hunk swinging at a ball and being gobbled up first ball! Or a celebrated baddie letting the ball go past him on the field almost every time and succeeding in guiding it to the fence more often than not. Then there was this veteran who was called in to bowl and his balls were invariably sent over the fence! A former spinning great must have particularly cringed to see his progeny drop a few ‘sitters’. He was neither here nor there, so to say.
On the flip side it was an event put together with a lot of thought and one wouldn’t be surprised if it goes on to become a bigger and regular one on the calendar. Though one would have thought that the event was in a lighter vein, most of the participants took it very seriously. To the extent that the best team on view took the defeat in the final with a lot of ‘flowing’ emotion!
The fans were thrilled no doubt, albeit their heroes weren’t as terrific as on screen. The ‘star support’ too was great and the performances before the start and during the breaks added to the entertainment value. At the end of it all somebody was overheard remarking that there would be a ‘filmy’ team during the next edition of IPL. Any takers?
