The IPL Casting Couch

We are aware about the existence of the so-called [actor’s] “Casting Couch” in Bollywood but here’s an angle:  Is there one at the IPL too?

We know that the IPL is intrinsically related to Bollywood, not just because there is a Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and the Baadshah (Shah Rukh Khan) involved as co-owners of teams but because it is all about the “Show Business” in general.

(Side Note 1:  Actors like Madhavan & Vidya Balan, Irrfan Khan, Katrina Kaif, etc. also grace the occasions.) 

At this stage, I must compliment Lalit Kumar Modi for making the IPL what it is and thus taking Cricket to a whole new level of entertainment, maybe even setting the stage for more countries to join in, such countries that do not play the game as yet?! 

(Side Note 2:  The U.S.A. were never really interested in football (called “soccer” there!) up until they realized that the Soccer World Cup was the second largest event after the Olympics and that it was all about mega TV ratings and billions of dollars. Where there is great marketing, there is big money and the Americans might eventually join in… is Lalit K. Modi eying just that?) 

Back to the Couch!

It’s show business, actors are involved, there big money in it too – so is there also an “IPL Couch” like there is one in Bollywood? 

Let’s take the case of Mandira Bedi.

Mandira has evolved from her early days as the “Sexy Interviewer on the Greens”. She made it into the studio and was broadcast all the time, making her face quite unanimous with that of the IPL. I think that she has evolved, in that she really understands cricket as a game on the one side and that she has even gotten to look better over time, on the other. Fact is brains & beauty are a combination that is hard to beat! 

(Cross Reference: See Priyanka Das’s article in the Times of India)    

So, here are the million dollar questions:

1. Why was Mandira, who was actually supposed to be hosting the IPL as anchor, suddenly dropped from her pre-destined job?
2. Had Mandira’s looks, her charm, her wit gotten her into the Couch zone – where she certainly did not want to be?
3. Now, if the infamous IPL Couch does exist, then the big question is:  who wanted her on it?
4. At this stage I wish to pose yet another seemingly unrelated but maybe very related question indeed:  What is the selection process for the cheer leaders at the IPL??

 

One match follows another, and in all of that, such key issues are mostly swept under the carpet until a denial also sets in.

We at BCC! want you to question all of this… 

Ajoy Eric Lal

He often asks, why the colour of journalism at BCC! cannot be tainted yellow?