Cricket, KBC and Commerce! Just A Thought!

How we enjoyed playing cricket and also watching it in bright sunshine on a chilly winter day from the early seventies till Commerce took over the game, converting it to an all-season affair and making no difference between day and night! Well, there’s nothing we can complain about! It’s the need of the times and the people going through with less and less time for the olden charms of life, sports or nature! We’re here talking about the 4^th T20I match between India and South Africa, and it’s that form of cricket which is, in fact, the result of commerce. Actually we, the kids, in the early seventies also played limited-overs matches having no inkling of the transformation coming in the later decades. Nowadays we get to play or watch only the long-format Tests and domestic matches in pristine conditions of wintry sunshine, with all one-day and T20 matches almost entirely converted to day-n-night affairs. Ruthless experiments are also going on to convert the classical Test Cricket too with a string of successes across the globe.

The said 4^th T20I match between the visiting South Africa and the hosts India in Lucknow is taking place this very evening, that is the 17^th of December, 2025. The Indian cricket mandarins must’ve been aware of the thick of winter in this North Indian city and still, Commerce forced them to stick on! How could they not anticipate the dew and the fog? Yes! The match is getting delayed because of the layer of heavy fog over the stadium, packed obviously with reveling crowds. The umpires are inspecting the conditions—the fog and the wet grounds—again and again; however, how do they know the fog is going to lift off late into the night rather than thickening further? Well, nobody knows at this moment! Maybe Commerce would win over Nature, one more time! No! we’re not complaining!

Our rather uncouth use of the word ‘Commerce’ brings us to the superhit show of Kaun Banega Crorepati that started in the year 2000 and has entered its 25^th year this year, with the Star of the Millennium Amitabh Bachchan as the beloved host. We’re actually crestfallen to witness, particularly in this silver jubilee year, how Commerce has influenced the show in many more ways than necessary and has almost transformed it. Yes! We’re pained to behold the following: the show organizers invariably make the 83-year-old megastar literally run into the show from the wings; with the increasing number of sponsors the hapless but ever-confident-n-superlative host has to mouth the lines every time the respective sponsors need to be brought around—in every episode of the show every single day; the excellent quiz show, overlooking the gambling part, of the formative years is no longer there, with badinage, interactions and personal anecdotes/stories dominating; and to add more horror for us purists, Amitabh Bachchan, of late, has started inviting members of the family of the winning candidate along to the Hot Seat which transpires that the hot seat is no longer a hot seat, it’s a hot bench and with more and more personal stories to unfold. No! we’re not complaining. For it’s for us exclusively that Commerce has been doing all that!

Meanwhile, the umpires have inspected again, and delaying the toss again, tossing it further into the long night with the paying revelers waiting and enjoying in the stands. Let’s see how it proceeds! However, it doesn’t necessarily imply loss of sleep for us purists!

For some info at least: India leads the Twenty20 International Series 2-1. And the hosts have never lost a bilateral T20I Series since 2015.

Breaking News! The match has finally been abandoned! Nature Wins against Humankind!