Even as the general elections head towards a climax, there’s another poll unfolding — in cyberspace.
Between Saturday and Monday evening, nearly 29,000 readers of fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com— an Indian Premier League (IPL)-related blog that has spawned a cult following within the country and the Indian diaspora — have cast their vote to decide whether the mystery writer should reveal his identity or not.
The unknown blogger may not have turned out even once for his Kolkata Knight Riders team owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan, his rib-tickling posts have endeared him to thousands of fans, and attracted coverage by prestigious newspapers such as Britain’s Telegraph and Independent.
“You rock, dude,” is one of the most common refrains among fans, an overwhelming bulk of whom now wants to know who the cricketer-writer is, or if he is a cricketer in the first place, given his “mastery” over the English language.
Interestingly, the poll process has been initiated by the blogger himself, who goes by the moniker FIP (Fake IPL Player) and describes himself as a no-hope bench-warmer in a team that is at the bottom of the IPL heap with three measly points from 11 outings.
According to latest reports, nearly 19,000 blog fans or 64 percent of the total “voters” had plugged for the faceless writer’s identity to be revealed.
The popularity of the posts stem from FIP’s wicked wit, tongue-in-cheek sexual innuendoes, juicy details of players’ drinking binges or womanising, and outrageous nicknames for fellow cricketers, the support staff, team owners including Shah Rukh, and IPL bosses and commentators.
Wrote he after a particularly humiliating loss that fuelled talks of staff sackings: “While our fielding coach was busy browsing naukri.com, our Throwing Coach accusingly glared at our wicketkeeping coach every time Skipper and Buddhiman Baba (Brendon McCullum and Wriddhiman Saha, both wicketkeepers) had their slip-ups in the outfield.”
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Defeat is a test of character: SRK
After conquering the nation’s first great love, celluloid, the Badshah of Bollywood looked all set to conquer the other, cricket. But the gilded Knight Riders’ have failed to glitter and SRK is now fielding flak.
‘You-win-you-lose, that’s sports’; so does he think his detractors and critics are especially harsh on his team because they’re brand-SRK? “I don’t mind the harsh treatment,” he says candidly, but “I’ll protect my players as much as I can. We always knew we were going to face a lot of flak. I’m used to people who want you to fall on your face. You think I haven’t experienced that in movies?”
“We knew we’d taken some difficult decisions that were going to be far from popular. But I’ve never been one to try and please everybody. If you believe in your desires and goals, it doesn’t matter who else believes in you or not. That is also the team philosophy,” he elaborates.
“It may not have worked so far, but, like we said initially, we’re looking to build a team for the future. I’m still hopeful, but we’ll have to start changing things around soon.”
Rumour was that SRK refused to go to South Africa till his team started winning again because he thought it would jinx them.
“I don’t believe in jinxes,” he declares. “I believe in effort and the aim to be the best. But defeat is a test of character,” he says philosophically, “Everything looks perfect when you are winning and in disarray when you aren’t. But even through defeat shines real character.”
The team boss himself however, has been accused of being a poor loser. “I certainly don’t like to lose,” he admits, “whoever says they love to lose or even don’t mind losing is lying, or there’s something wrong with that person.”
“I’m not going to put on a fake smile when I lose. Of course, defeats are also taken in the right spirit.”
“good performances from opponents are appreciated. That doesn’t mean any of us are happy with defeat,” he says.
SRK has put his money where his mouth is as far as his team is concerned; is there angst now that it isn’t reaping dividends? “Money doesn’t come into play when you talk about pride, aspiration and ambition. I’m not bothered about how much money we make here,” he clarifies. Then why whispers of disquiet between him and his partners, Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta? “That’s just the beginning. Now you’ll start hearing of problems between me and someone else, then someone else. Why am I not surprised?” he asks sarcastically. Does he feel that the public wants failure for his team as that failure would reflect on him? “Well, even if they do, they can keep wanting. I’m not used to failure and I’m not about to start getting used to it now,” he says brusquely, flashing that love-it-or-hate-it trademark self-assurance. The Knight Riders may languish at the bottom of the table, but SRK’s attitude is still at the top.
‘You-win-you-lose, that’s sports’; so does he think his detractors and critics are especially harsh on his team because they’re brand-SRK? “I don’t mind the harsh treatment,” he says candidly, but “I’ll protect my players as much as I can. We always knew we were going to face a lot of flak. I’m used to people who want you to fall on your face. You think I haven’t experienced that in movies?”
“We knew we’d taken some difficult decisions that were going to be far from popular. But I’ve never been one to try and please everybody. If you believe in your desires and goals, it doesn’t matter who else believes in you or not. That is also the team philosophy,” he elaborates.
“It may not have worked so far, but, like we said initially, we’re looking to build a team for the future. I’m still hopeful, but we’ll have to start changing things around soon.”
Rumour was that SRK refused to go to South Africa till his team started winning again because he thought it would jinx them.
“I don’t believe in jinxes,” he declares. “I believe in effort and the aim to be the best. But defeat is a test of character,” he says philosophically, “Everything looks perfect when you are winning and in disarray when you aren’t. But even through defeat shines real character.”
The team boss himself however, has been accused of being a poor loser. “I certainly don’t like to lose,” he admits, “whoever says they love to lose or even don’t mind losing is lying, or there’s something wrong with that person.”
“I’m not going to put on a fake smile when I lose. Of course, defeats are also taken in the right spirit.”
“good performances from opponents are appreciated. That doesn’t mean any of us are happy with defeat,” he says.
SRK has put his money where his mouth is as far as his team is concerned; is there angst now that it isn’t reaping dividends? “Money doesn’t come into play when you talk about pride, aspiration and ambition. I’m not bothered about how much money we make here,” he clarifies. Then why whispers of disquiet between him and his partners, Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta? “That’s just the beginning. Now you’ll start hearing of problems between me and someone else, then someone else. Why am I not surprised?” he asks sarcastically. Does he feel that the public wants failure for his team as that failure would reflect on him? “Well, even if they do, they can keep wanting. I’m not used to failure and I’m not about to start getting used to it now,” he says brusquely, flashing that love-it-or-hate-it trademark self-assurance. The Knight Riders may languish at the bottom of the table, but SRK’s attitude is still at the top.
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