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Small fish are always afraid of the big fish. It’s the ability of the big fish to wield power that makes any confrontation with it a tough task. Yusuf Pathan said his brother’s exclusion from the team has more non-cricketing reasons than the purely cricketing ones. Media showed the news all day. Realizing that he has played a non-cricketing shot, he later disowned what he said. He ate the oranges along with the peals.
Yusuf can be pardoned for backtracking, as it’s not a bad situation either when fifty percent of his father’s sons, can live the cricket glory. So why irk the powerful and ruin the blessing.
The fear of the powerful is eternal, not only in cricketers’ mind, but also in the minds of those who scavenge on the game—the cricket bloggers. Scavenging may seem too hard a word to define the work of a cricket blogger, but the way, a blogger picks news bits from other news sources; and the way hundreds of bloggers shred into pieces one original news source; and drag their pieces to the safety of their respective blogs is akin to the work of scavengers.
So bloggers are afraid of big fish too. Bored memebrs are no exception.
Although the key people kept on contemplating on Bored Cricket Crazy Indians' acronym issue, they never found time to take the initiative. As no blogger is ever pressed for time; they can be pardoned for their laid back approach to the problem.
[ Things you should know
Q. Why are bloggers never pressed for time?
Ans. Bloggers are never pressed for time because blogging is never considered a serious business; it is a debased thing. Sharp people who matter run newspapers and news channels. That apart, the very basic philosophy of internet being an open medium; provides ample opportunities to work at a leisurely pace. So why hurry.]
But now there’s a catch; it’s not that only the Bored Members had the acronym problem littered in their minds; some really conscious people were thinking on the issue on parallel lines.
One such person was Mr. Hitesh Bothra.
So the final initiative to the acronym came from Mr. Bothra. One day while on Bored (as a reader), he scribbled a comment at one of the recent posts and suggested to drop the ‘I’ from the acronym and bring in an exclamation mark, ‘!’ in its place. Just to make the suggestion more wholesome; he also pointed to the fact that the new inclusion will resemble a bat and a ball.
Actually Mr. Bothra’s fix was quite impressive. And the laid back Bored Members took no time to endorse Mr. Bothra’s suggestion.
Soon a memo was circulated to all Bored Members; apprising them of the change and what they felt about the new change. Habitual of lifting things, all the Bored Members, whole-heartedly praised the change (not Mr. Bothra; as one should eat mangoes, and never count trees)
So fear of the big, helped an exclamation mark, get its place in the final four.
Celebrating One Year Of Boredom : How an exclamation mark appeared in the Bored acronym !
Celebrating One Year Of Boredom: I
I’ve often repeated this in my previous articles at Bored. But I still find it apt to mention it one more time; although let I admit, I’m not averse to retelling it in future as well. As I consider it more as a case study on “How to launch a Cricket Blog” than anything.
In mid last year, I used to venture to SP’s blog many times a day. Actually SP’s was among a few dozen cricket blogs I used to diligently follow at that time. I used to admire the love these guys had for the game, and that showed in their blogs. The level of interaction, by way of comments, at some of these blogs could put to shame any established cricket forum. Some of these blogs could easily boast of 30 reader comments per article. Considering that most of the bloggers were doing it for the love of the game; this was not a meager achievement.
One day while on SP’s blog I noticed a teaser, that asked the readers to anticipate the arrival of BCCI – Bored Cricket Crazy Indians, with a punch line Cricket ka Blog Buster. If you pay some attention, then you will notice that I have used an ‘I’ instead of an ‘!’ (Exclamation mark) for the last letter of the BCC! acronym. Actually at the time of its launch there was an I in the BCC!. But later on, the owners decided to change it to an ‘!’.
Although now the change has very well cemented its place in the established nomenclature; how the exclamation mark secured its place in the important four, is a story worth telling; I’ll tell that story in the coming articles.
Coming back on the teaser thing. Every time I visited SP's space I used to click on the Teaser link—and was sent to a blog which featured only one post by Naked Cricket. If I’m not mistaking, the write-up too promised something interesting; though in more words.
Anticipating some real dhamaaka, I kept on clicking the teaser every time I reached SP’s blog and was transported to the same place, with the same single post.
But one day SP wrote a small post with a title: “introducing...BCCI: Cricket ka Blogbuster!!"
What caught my attention was the picture in this post. The picture had nothing to do either with the content or the title of the article; and in short was a complete mismatch. That apart, the picture primarily had a head turning virtue, a lady with some clothes (Got!). Though the write-up for the first time told readers about the concept of BCC!, and what to look out for in coming days; I was not really amused by the mismatch and the virtue.
Honestly speaking, I thought it to be an exercise in over-confidence or more realistically something which creative people start with great enthusiasm, but find themselves in “what to do next” frame of mind , when the initial zeal ends.
So this is what I had repeated couple of times in the past. Now, let I share, why I consider this as a case study on “How to launch a Cricket Blog”.
As said, the picture-mismatch-virtue was a big let down for I; but if I think over the entire sequence of events now, I find that the people who were behind the events, have done a remarkable job. They had successfully created the base for the Blog launch.
Let’s talk about the events one by one.
The Teaser: A decade ago, an article in an esteemed US daily, defined a teaser “as an ad for ad”. A teaser intends to attract the attention by its mysterious nature, and alerts the reader or viewer for the future pitches/ events. A good teaser arouses curiosity among the readers. Thus a teaser is of big importance to any campaign. BCC! people were aware of this importance. For me the BCCI teaser successfully served its purpose. Due credit to the one(s) who coined the blog name and the punch “Cricket Ka Blog Buster”
The introductory post and the picture-mismatch-virtue: The picture in the introductory post may have been a mismatch, it may have a head turning virtue, but it made the readers glance at the write-up. In essence, it’s like roping in a hot celebrity to deliver the public interest information. If not of the mismatch and the virtue, who would have bothered to read about an upcoming blog- An entity that hits the cyberspace every other second.
We have often heard or read about the massive budgets big companies put on their ad campaigns. But very few succeed in running a memorable campaign; a campaign which approaches to completeness in all respect. The reason why money can’t ensure the best outcome is that more than the money, it’s the creativeness, resource allocation, planning and execution which makes for a memorable campaign.
People behind Bored managed to do a great work on this front.
Rest in the next write-up.
Bored Turns One!
Last summer when I was vacationing in the USA, a new cricket blog started doing the rounds.
Q also blogs at Well Pitched
Shoaib Akhtar, Salman Khan and us.
7:37
naked cricket: Today is Shoiab's Birthday
7:38
John: how come indian cricketers are never caught in public drunk?
7:38
BoredCricketCrazyIndians: And ours too, what does that say about us
7:38
John: bored shares its birthday with shoaib. how appropriate?
7:38
Homer: very :)
7:38
[Comment From Wasim]
He should announce his retirement
7:39
Prafs: no we dont have warts
7:40
John: did you guys hear the story about shoaib and salman khan ripping their shirts off and racing each other on a mumbai beach? don't know how true it is! but its a nice story
If you missed our birthday and Shoaib Akhtar's, you now know where to go. What, Juhu?
Bored Day Party! LIVE!
Bored Peon and Bored Neon at the Bored Day Party!
Cricket: from sport to religion- Maha-kirkit-ayana!
Bread and Circus. That's what the junta needs.Animal rights have put the Circus to seed and hence the reinvented adage is Bread and TV!
In India it would be roti/chawal aur TV ( depending on your palate type!).For many of us educated types it has changed to beer and internet!
And in India where there is TV, electricity or not (Tractor batteries can be used to run TV), there is Bollywood (or Bhoj-jywood,or Ahomiya-wood etc. etc.) and there is Cricket ( many activists may oppose this monopolising statement against the "Unity in Diversity" politically correct definition of India, but really which company is paying big money to kabaddi,football,hockey or chuppan-chupai!).
Who would have thought that Cricket , a five day game for supremely bored British gentlemen, who became Cricket Crazy would inject Desis with this virus without some "tyohar"(festival) affecting it in the middle of its long duration. In rural India there is a saying "Saat vaar,nau tyohar" which means seven days,nine festivals!
So we went out and made Cricket into a "tyohar", five days of chutti, GDP loss go to hell! We just added the cricketing calendar to the Hindu calendar (which hindu one,you ask,among the hundreds,from Saka to the Bengali one, you go figure!) .
Along with Ganesh,Shiva,Jesus,Buddha,Guru Nanak,Sai Baba (of Shirdi), we can add photos of Sunny or Tendulkar,Dhoni or Viv to our little space on the wall, or to our mandirs!
I always think that if minor starlets in South India can have fan associations make temples to their names, how come the Cricket greats are left out.How come no one has exploited the market opportunity to sell marble or reconstituted granite dust idols of these cricket stars.Agarbattis to go with their favourite perfumes, laddoos which look like cricket balls as prasadam. We could make garlands with 4's and 6's figures made of wood or acrylic (imported from China!).
Bhagvad Gita talks of various pathways we can attain God/spiritual liberation/Moksha , the four main ones being Bhakti,Gyan,Yog,and Karm.
The Karma Cricket ones are those who actually blood and sweat on the game, play to win and can go into depression if they are not in the team.The Gyan Criket ones are the bloggers,twitterers,writers,facebookers and PhD researchers. The Yog Cricket ones could be the ones who play it for exercise, its surprising how no one has come out with books like "The one season Cricket Diet", "How to bat,not run between wickets and still win the weight game" and the most popular one ever "Bat for size zero"- young women would make Cricket the hottest game on the planet. The Cricket Bhakts are those who would sing Cricket-bhajanams and wear the locket,bracelet or earings of their favouritist player.There is a huge merchandising operation waiting to happen.
India has always been known to innovate with faith.Mahavir,Buddha,Aurobindo, then Osho. This is the time to say that Cricket-Leela is the deepest metaphor of life.Just imagine we could go a step further than Kabir and Nanak who wanted to bridge the Hindu-Muslim divide, we could bridge the Christian-Hindu-Muslim-Atheist Existentialist divide ( just need to get Jews into it, and the Palestine problem is solved!). If we just created mixed teams (women and men), and had solar-powered night Cricket, we would be gender fair and ecologically sustainable.
On this beginning of second season of Bored Cricket Crazy Indians, I say "Om Tendulkar Namah ! "
Sunny Narang also writes at www.anandolan.net
Out with it.
Say it.
Your mama won’t mind.
And your daddy won’t mind.
What is cricket to you?
It's been exactly one bored year now, timed this post down to the last minute. First post was up on August 13th, 12.12 AM.
Happy Bored Day to you!
What's cricket to you?
BCC! signs 'whereabouts' clause.
Delhi - K, AEL, Som, Soulberry, Straight Point, Naked Cricket
Dehradun - A Bisht
Mumbai - Ankit Poddar, Ankit Mishra, John, Prafs, Trideep, Raj
Chennai - Scorpicity, Ottayan, VM
Stamford - Homer
New Hampshire - Krish
Kochi - Achettup
Sydney - Damith
London - Megha
Dubai - RajaB, Bhaskar Khaund
Manchester - Q
