Saying it like it might be

Osman Samiuddin discusses one of the ramifications of the IPL - the alarming decline of standards in the commentary booth.

What, someone joked during the IPL, is the difference between those dancing by the boundary downstairs and those in the commentary box upstairs? Only that those downstairs have nicer curves.

This is what it had come to. The brief for the men in the box was narrow - to make sure only one message got out: come what may, the IPL was God, Lalit Modi was Moses, and there wasn't a rest of it. To speak was to hype, but only if it came with the right sponsor. Each six was a "DLF maximum", each critical point in the game a "Citi moment of success". Ravi Shastri, Arun Lal, Ramiz Raja, Sunil Gavaskar and the rest didn't call matches, they sold brands, blindly promoting the IPL (and anything else that came their way).

One reason being touted for the breatheless plugging of the IPL is that with the action happening so fast, there isn't much time for the commentators to discuss strategy. Strange how that logic does not seem to apply to the players when they goof up, does it?