Rivalry - Essential ingredient to spice up any sport!

Any sport is best enjoyed when the adversaries are equal in might. But for a combat, where the lesser-known minnow upsets the much-reputed champion (which seldom happens), a duel between two well-matched opponents is as much delight for the spectators as it is for the competing sportsmen themselves!

Looking at a few such periods in the history of sport, where the interest in a particular sport was fuelled/rejuvenated by two near-equal rivals...

Boxing, as a sport reached its pinnacle and got world attention really for the first time when Joe Frazier laid his claim to a throne that Ali believed was his birth-right. In his first big fight after being convicted in ’67 for refusing induction into US Army to punch the Vietnamese, Ali’s first big moment to use his fist again came in 1971. And in spite of miles of footage and kilomemetres of verse from the multi-talented Clay claiming that he would punch Joe’s face to pulp, Frazier won the first bout that went into 15 rounds. This was one moment that gave world boxing two superstars! In ’74, Ali regained his lost prestige by doing what Frazier did to him 3 years back, getting a unanimous declaration by the judges. The 5 year long peak for the sport of Boxing finally culminated with “Thrilla in Manila”, ironically a day before Gandhi’s birthday, where Ali proved why he was indeed God’s gift to Boxing. At the end of the fight where Frazier’s coach wouldn’t let Frazier off the bloody stool, Ali summed up the fight and in a way the 5 year long rivalry in typical Ali style saying “That was as close to dying as I have ever come”!
The Tyson-Hollyfield rivalry had the potential of a similar kind of revival for the sport till the time that the following joke originated “The subtle difference between a married Indian woman and a Tyson match is this- An ear with rings vs. a ring with ears”. The interest has now largely faded away with the sport struggling to find even one marketable champ (after Andrew Golota who could have modeled for Huggies after Tyson kicked his butt in precisely 50 seconds)!

Formula-1, a sport largely dominated by drivers for decades is another case in point where the last decade led to boredom in the sport again because of the presence of one champion and loads of lesser mortals. With M. Schumacher reducing 18 days every year for seven years to a joke with a superior machine and exceptional skills, the arrival of a fitting rival like Alonso took years coming. And when he did, the results are there to see. You see a lot many people waiting for the Sunday where nothing is expected any more. I mean it is still expected, but its “Schumi or Alonso?” as opposed to “Its going to be Schumi again”. Several other, albeit shorter testimonies of the “rivalry fuelling interest” surfaced in the sport when the Flying Finn Mika did give the champ a scare or two in 2001-02, and then again with Montoya’s maverick yet unsuccessful attempts to dethrone the champ, even if for one or two races, here and there. One just hopes now that the old champ’s exit from the sport does give the new champ an apt rival to keep the interest in the sport alive.

Track- 100 meters, a sport that defies science and typifies the spirit of man to go beyond limits imposed by nature- again used to be a sport where one champion would emerge on the scene, create a record that would stay for (for the lack of another common number) 5 years till the time that the process would continue in arithmetic progression. From Armin Hary, the first one to break the 10 sec barrier, there have been many Americans (Carl Lewis in ‘91 with 9.86, Leroy Burell in ‘94 with 9.85, Donovan Bailey- a Canadian with 9.84 in ‘96 and Maurice Greene with 9.79 in ’99) and some tainted, drug-assisted sprinters like Ben Johnson who clocked 9.79 in Seoul ’88 and more recent Tim Montgomery with a 9.78 in ’02). But the point is that seldom have there been really strong rivalries between two sprinters at the same time. But now, for the last couple of years or so, there is Asafa Powell from Jamaica (with the current WR of 9.76), Justin Gatlin from USA (now drug tainted), and Francis Obikwelu (from Portugal) who have ensured that bookies turn to this sport as well. The spectator interest has also come alive with records being challenged in virtually every track event! By the way I would love to know what our own sprinters ala Paramjeet Singh and KM Beenamol’s younger bro (can’t remember his name now) can do with 10 times the drug dosage that Ben Johnson took- nothing sarcastic about it, just curious what is the best that we can do!

Tennis is another sport where the highs in spectator interest have time and again been spurred by rivalries at the top bracket. Rod Laver-Ken Roswell immediately post the open era, a rare triumvirate rivalry of ice cool Borg and hot-headed Connors & McEnroe through the 70s, Edberg-Becker in mid and late 80s with an occasional scare from Wilander, Lendl and likes. The 90s inspite of my hero Agassi’s mercurial rise and extra-mercurial comeback will always remain as one of the most boring eras of tennis (especially between 1992 and 1998) when Agassi fell in love, got married, fell in love again, broke his back, fell in love and married again (Same applies to Kambli as well, in the same period) And the culprit is the boring Sampras this time around. Pardon me, I hate the clinical approach that guys like him and McGrath bring to any sport that reduces the spirit and style of sport to academic and text-book perfection. Post 2002- take out Sampras and put in Federer (but surely with greater class, style and panache) and you have a similar scenario till Nadal came into “clay-court” tennis. Still way to go before Rafael can do the same on hard-court and grass inspite of having reached a Wimbledon final already. Roddick and Safin amaze and deceive at the same time and Hewitt seems to have accepted forthcoming history. Blake might not do an Arthur Ashe but a Malavia Washington, may be! On the other hand, the women’s edition of the sport has been marked with far lesser rivalries with fewer champions dominating across decades.

My next blog will explore this “male vs. female” rivalry in the sport of Tennis post open era and try and bust a few myths that many of us have!

To sum it up, what we need for any sport is equally matched talent at the top bracket, at least; not a scenario like cricket for instance, where Australia reaches every major final and then beats the shit out of second best…that is no fun for the viewing public and fans and is detrimental to sport!

Does quality content need to be promoted?

The most vociferous debate in the media circles after the Star-Zee duel, the Tanaaz-Bhaktyar/Shweta-Manav and the Mika-Rakhi debate is the discussion on the old, yet constant adage “Is content more important that marketing” debate!

A parallel from the Bollywood industry here, which in my understanding does not work very different from the television industry in the sense that the need gap fulfilled for the consumer (apologies for using marketing jargon) is that of entertainment. The past one year has been replete with cases of movies that have gone overboard shouting in a bid to generate initial walkins to the theatre. But is high-decibel marketing the foremost criterion to ensure BO collections? Let’s try to work out a case here with the aid of nine of the biggest Bollywood hits in the last year…

Bluffmaster – A UTV/Ramesh Sippy Films production that went berserk on the marketing front, where the Abhishek was co-branded with categories as varied as petroleum and retail…in terms of the content appeal to the audience, I would say lukewarm…and in terms of Box-office collections, a hit by Boxoffice standards! Collection – 17 crores after 10 weeks of playing
Rang De Basanti – A cult by any standards, the movie rode on the initial publicity gained through “WOM” and deservedly do…the movie gained from marketing really after release as the pre-launch hype was essentially centred around Aamir Khan who was making an appearance on the silver screen after a rather long hiatus – 51 crores BO collections, as was reminded to us by Mr. Ronnie Screwalla in the ads that was a source of ire to many of his counterparts in the producer circles
Taxi No. 9211 – Again a UTV/Ramesh Sippy production that rode on the pre-launch marketing blitz with John Abraham and Sameera Reddy in the cast along with the violent Nana Patekar who was making a re-appearance after a long break and some lively-but-repetitive music by Vishal Shekhar. Hit by BO standards – 20 crores after 10 weeks of release
Malamaal Weekly – A Sahara One production; Again, hugely promoted through on-air-promos and off-air support in terms of hoardings and the related hoopla, the movie was keenly looked forward to, being a Priyadarshan movie (albeit it came after fairly pedestrian movies like Hulchul and Garam Masala post a brilliant Hera Pheri), but to re-iterate hugely promoted to catch the moviegoers’ attention – 25 crores in collection after 10 weeks of release
Fanaa – Aamir Khan has his own way of creating hype for his movies, a typical Classical Economics situation where constrained supply hikes demand; Besides Aamir’s appearance, the movie also rode on aspects like Kajol’s first movie post “Nysa’s” (only an illiterate wouldn’t know her and Maddox’s name) birth, huge outdoor/TV promotions and Yashraj’s muscle at the distributors’ end; all-in-all a typical brand-like marketing blitz accompanied by in-the-face tactics like special features on NDTV..oh yes, it was Kunal Kohli’s third movie after “Mujhse Dosti Karoge” (surprised???) and a brilliant “Hum Tum”…sad that he’s remembered more for Hum Tum and Nach Baliye now! – Astounding 53 crores of BO collection
Krrish – Raakesh Rroosshhan at his very best at creating a 3 ½ hour mega-advertisement traversing across product categories as varied as Milk Food Drinks, Cellular Phones, Fabric Wash & Motorbikes with branded segments for (don’t be alarmed and appalled) Tide, S-Kumars, Samsung Mobile phones, Vicks Inhaler, Bournvita, Star TV, Star News and Hero Hoinda Karizma…oops I was talking about a movie; With the on-air-promos coming out of even a non-TV-households’ ears, this was sure a case study for promotions being taken to the height of heights, and whoa…did it result into BO results (I’m not talking about the sub-standard performances in the movie) – a whopping 65 crores of BO collections
Omkara – An artistic masterpiece written, screenplayed (am not sure if that’s correct English), musically rendered (even sung) and directed by Vishal Bharadwaaj, it was a movie’s critic delight with stellar performances from the cast (minus Ajay Devgan’s tilted neck, clichéd, sick acting), probably a movie that became a hit post release riding on content, albeit supported by a bit of marketing and promotion with Saif’s new bald look (Yes, Mr. Bharadwaj, we heard about Saif’s sacrifice of his hair enough number of times of Aaj Tak and on Mumbai/Delhi times) - 23 crores of BO revenues
KANK – Dharma productions (yuck, i want to puke again) I don’t want to talk about it and I hope that my future family doesn’t talk about it either. Filmy and illogical and stupid is my verdict! Enough promos with the pansy director from coffee with karan to chai with chuuu…or whatever, but the fact is – BO collection of 46 crores

...The point that I’m trying to make is that all of the above 8 Bollywood hits banked on marketing to deliver the result and pass the ultimate litmus test, that of Box-office collections!....but let me prove the conventional movie (and to an extent brand) marketing model wrong by giving you an example of movie that delivered the best result of the year and probably the decade by NOT marketing and NOT divulging the content and NOT doing in-the-face features on the news channels till a day after release...Lage Raho Munnabhai

Lage Raho Munnabhai – The best movie of the year, after RDB where the producer and the director had the conviction that audience would trickle in post the release, based on the one and the most important factor for the success of a product, QUALITY AND WORD OF MOUTH…the movie became a roaring success post release and not pre-release as in the case of a lot of aforementioned marketing gimmicks! The Gandhi angle was intentionally kept of media and what returns the movie got will be a part of history even 20 years down the line. A disclaimer here - This risk can and should be taken however, if and only if the creator truly does know his audience and understand the viewers' palate!..what do we say further - BO collections of 70 crores post 10 weeks of release, the movie is still going strong!

A clear case study for marketers where keeping the product in seclusion and out of the media blitz before release does pay handsome dividends (but with a high quality product.story)…Is there an apparent learning for a lot of us in the TV industry here also...from the Bollywood industry where the old maxim is being proved true again; The returns from quality content can be matched by high noise marketing to an extent but ultimately, for transcending a piece of creative from a hit to a superhit to a cult, the primary and foremost ingredient in content!...the logical conclusion sadly, from this corollary is also that most of us Indians as indeed regressive or at least like to watch regressive content on TV…how else would Ekkkkta soaps still reign supreme on TV!

Ricardo speaks - for the 'Un'common Mumbhai!

Ricardo speaks - for the 'Un'common Mumbhai!

The famous marginal utility theory has its origins in Ricardo’s theory of land-rent which propounds that price of a given piece of land is dependent on the returns from the least productive piece of land in cultivation. Now, carrying forward this to the Mumbai real estate scene, one can conclude that as long as there are idiots like us who are willing to buy real estate in god-forsaken areas like Bhayandar & Ambernath, the prices of house in Colaba and Bandra would continue on the upward binge. Wait a minute; what we’re really saying is that a price increase for a house in the least attractive area (the marginal land according to Ricardo) will push up the prices for the houses in the most attractive areas even higher. Now, let us look at the real reason behind people settling with an option of living in remote corners of the city, and this pertains to many of us really (not me thankfully) who choose to reside in areas as distant from the workplace (Lower Parel & South Mumbai in most instances) as Kandivali & Dahisar. The reason is this – Accessibility or the ability to commute such long distances. With the road traffic being the way it is, I don’t think it is practical for a car-owner to put his hard-earned asset to use unless one’s boss is alright with 3 working days per week. On a normal evening with normal potholes, very normal traffic jams caused by lane-changing buffoons and absolutely normal accidents on the middle of the road, a person takes close to 3 hours to travel from South Mumbai to Kandivali (and I’m not even stretching the city to its fullest extent right now). Now this ease of commuting is really for whom? It’s for the guy who is willing to travel on a train, not for the guy who owns a car.

Let me give a parallel here from a book that is a fab read – The Undercover Economist. Tim Harford mentions about the green belts being mandated in the city of London where it’s not legal to construct residential or official enterprise. The artificial scarcity for land being created by the Government through these green belts had been the real reason for the steeper property prices increases in London as compared to other cities like New-York and Sydney. The real estate prices began to increase around the distant parts of the city even more once the conveyance ease was increased through the introduction of tube trains. A guy could now live far-off from work but could still commute to work! Goes with the Mumbai story too- where the train connection to far-flung places has made sure that travel is possible, but again for those people who are “willing” to take train travel, not for the guy who has a car or desires to own one!

What about people who do not want to take train travel & can’t afford the time and cash that a cab from office to home involves? I guess I belong to that category and so would many of us. It is easy to shrug the argument off by saying that only 5% of the residents in Mumbai own a car. But the other side to it is that the wonderful size of the amazing city ensures that the 5% number works out to little over 6 lac people! Now, a very big proportion of this population segment makes Mumbai stand for what it does; it represents the lower, middle and top management cadre of the companies that have set up base here; it really comprises of people without whom Mumbai would not be the progressive, cosmopolitan & modern city that we know it as. It’s only logical that people who make money in this city would want to upgrade from train travel and buy a car sometime. Once they buy a car, they should also be in a position to drive down from work to their place. Buying a house in South Mumbai is not an option that many of us would have unless we also double up as dancers in the banned dance bars in Mumbai. So what do the companies do to retain employees in (apologies to all Mumbhais) this crowded & filthy city? Logically they have the following options

- Shift their head offices to all these suburbs, something that HLL has already done. Great that they have a vision of the world beyond soaps and toothpastes!

- Allow employees to work from home – very possible for a lot of enterprises in the service sector, especially BPOs to use technology and enable this option. But that will firstly ruin the concept of an office where people meet and have fun, I mean work and secondly make sure that people like "us" (Using “me” here would have been a correct but I assume that likeminded people visit my blog) who need a stick behind their ass to work just won’t work. So all in all, not a very practical option really.

- Expect employees to stay back in office and never let them go. True again of many service industries where a lot of “US” are employed. Jokes apart, not practical again

- Just move out of Mumbai! That seems to be the most logical thing to me. With the time taken to travel and the scarcity & price enormity of residential options near most offices, this seems like a given to me after a few years as the state Government is bound to take populist actions that will benefit the common man. And no, somebody who has the propensity to buy a car is not very common! So for all you guys who own a car – either look for accommodation close to work NOW and never quit your job or QUIT your Mumbai job now and look elsewhere!

Given the current scenario where the Worli Sea Link, Metro Trains and some Government sanity will take about a decade to arrive, unless the ball (a lot of balls really) is put in motion soon to ease the transport nightmare of the working class in the middle & higher income bracket (with a car), this city may lose the people who are at the best position to make this city better!

Give me my space for 150 bucks please!

The retail boom and the multiplex boom in Urban India have coincided alright, but it's rather evident that the former hasn't benefited the latter. I mean why is there no, and I repeat no movie theater where you can walk through the isle without intentionally, err unintentionally feeling up the backside of other space constrained movie watchers. It's a place that only aggravates the sense of social stigma for those men who 'can' walk through the isle without butt-brushing against the knees of the seated fellows and the women who 'cannot' manage to sneak into their seats without doing the same! I would not like to believe so, but the thought of homos around me who come to movie theatres to get a butt-rub in the garb of a Friday night movie really does scare me! I mean, please give a break to the "Enter the Dragon" loos, "Gate Way of India" entrances and "Brindavan Garden" musical fountains. All I expect for a 150 bucks ticket is merely 6 inches more space between 2 rows of seats. And what is with the 55 bucks popcorn and the 60 bucks cola? To sound Seinfeld'esque, I really beg to differ with the box office experts here. If not for the popcorn and cola, I'm sure the Bollywood industry would be running losses!

My first one - Has to be cricket!!!

Short & Stellar contributions overshadowed by heroic innings

Cricket, the most individualistic team game (probably the main reason why we Indians do so well...i mean "used to do" so well at the sport) is filled with instances where most of us have gone on to associate some important matches with batsmen who hammered the wits out of the opposition. And in the process, we often forget some short but really stellar contributions made by other batsmen that completely got overshadowed because of higher scores by their team-mates.

The top of the mind "short but sweet" ODI innings for us Indians, thanks to Kirmani's constant reminder on national TV on countless occasions is by Kirmani himself when he gave Kapil company enroute his monumental 175* against Zimbabwe at Turnbridge Wells. We also remember many such short but sweet innings being played on other occasions. To name a few TOM, Mongia (Nayan not the World Cup 2003 free-rider Dinesh Mongia) with Sachin at Sharjah against the Aussies, Sanjay Bangar (yes, he played for India too apart from Railways) against the WI at Motera. The following are three of my favourite short yet un-noticed innings that we often forget but scratch our head and remember as soon as someone points them out.

JJ van der wath (35 off 18 balls) - SA vs. Australia, Jo'berg

Arguably the most important contribution of the match, van der waath came in at 335 for 6, a very comfortable position in any other ODI, but chasing a mammoth 434 to win, it sure was a no-nonsense situation to find yourself in. In the next 44 runs that he added along with a rather sedate Boucher to start off with, van der wath cleared the boundary thrice, twice over point & thirdman and in the process handed over the momentum back to the SA team that they lost after Gibbs' wicket. We tend to remember this match more for Ponting batting like there was no tommorrow and Gibbs batting like there was no day after tommorrow and also for Boucher's spendid slog over batting as much as Mick Lewis' century with the ball (113 off 10 overs not in a 20-20 match or without Agarkar bowling to Ponting is quite some achievement)

Saurav Ganguly (60 off 43 balls) - India vs. England, Natwest Series, Lords
Better known as the match that Kaif and Yuvi won for us, we don't instantly remember the innings that ignited the spark to start with. Dada's fearless and often senseless hitting over the cover and point boundaries probably made Kaif believe that he too could clear the boundary once in his life (he did that twice in this match in fact). In this innings studded with 10 fours and one six, Ganguly led by example much before he pulled off a Rakhi Swant trick...No, he didn't smooch John Wright, the poor guy merely took off his shirt...bhool to nahi gaye na apne dada ko?

Sachin Tendulkar (41 of 26 balls) - India vs. Pakistan, Independence Cup, Dhaka
This match belonged to Ganguly (124) and Robin Singh (82) with due respect to Hrishikesh Kanitkar's only contribution to world cricket where he hit Saqlain's dew-sogged bowl over extra cover to come up with the winning runs. But not many would instantly associate Sachin with this match who actually sent the cat amongst the crows...err pigeons. Azhar Mehmood's molestation soon made way for Saqlain's rape! Pity that the little master couldn't stay on longer and this premature yet worthwhile innings came to end when he hit a skier off that bastard Afridi to be caught by the other one, Azhar Mehmood!

Would love to be reminded of more such innings that come to your mind!