Indian Premier League :: IPL Cricket Forum

Bengal_Tiger · Team Player Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 46 260 Runs

IPL is planning a grand opening on Friday the 18th when the Knight Riders meet the Royal Challengers at Bangalore. With Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid facing each other as rivals for the first time - it will indeed be a spectacular scene.

The opening ceremony will kick off at starting 18.30, when all the captains will come together at mid-pitch to jointly read out a pledge reaffirming the IPL's faith in the spirit of cricket. There will be speeches by Ray Mali, the ICC president, Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and IPL Chairman Lalit Modi.

The opening ceremony will consist of fireworks, stilt walkers, aerial gymnasts, performers in a bubble suspended over the ground and of course with a major Bollywood presence with Shah Rukh Khan the owner of Kolkata team - Knight Riders and some of his friends, Preity Zinta, co-owner of the IPL Mohali franchise - Kings XI Punjab. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy the music directors from Bollywood will perform throughout the ceremony even as the other performers go through their acts. And your guess is right - the key role behind sich an extravagant opening is played by none other than the Liquor Baron Vijaya Mallaya.

The most dramatic moment comes after the end of ceremony when all the floodlights are switched off at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the two skippers walk out for the toss just under spotlights.This is really something unique and will add sufficient drama and excitement just before the match - a kind of Roman arena where gladiators use to sweat out in a fight till the end atmosphere.

After the toss, a couple of players from the fielding side will talk directly with the TV commentators during the match. However we have seen this before and is good value for the TV Audience.

Bangalore is also waiting anxiously for the 12 cheerleaders from the Washington Redksins, the 'First Ladies of American Football'.

So what we will find here is a mix of glamor and cricket and personalities which is planned to be presented with professional touch adding new colors to the serious game of cricket and maybe reflecting the true image of IPL. One thing for sure is that the audience will never feel bored in this kind of an event as also the match itself will have enough firepower within it.

We can only hope that this event will not be marred by faceless politicians crowding the stage to grab some limelight again. All the best to the two teams Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers and also for the millions of cricket fan waiting breathlessly for the IPL League to start.

Knight Rider Rules

varungupta · Top Scorer Joined: 07 Apr 2008 Posts: 335 2013 Runs

well the way u have written it would surely be a BIG event!!!
& we all are waiting eagerly for the start of this revelution in the world of cricket

Lokesh Aggarwal · Master Blaster Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 111 1096 Runs

oh boy, i can see what a blast it would be!
the concept of darkening the stadium for toss, cooooool!
BIG BIG event indeed.

gasbo · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:13 am Post subject:

Well done IPL, it will add to the excitement of the concept of T20 cricket, unfortunately for Aussie fans the network televising the opening game has changed from a live broadcast to a 3 hour delayed one Mad

Oh woe!

descorpio · Top Scorer Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 165 756 Runs

You have given such a wonderful description to it. I am sure it rocked. But the description about the entry of captains is surely something unique in the world of cricket. Even the world cup finals would not have witnessed this. It will be very great moment for the players to walk in such a manner.