I feel Election 09 is more wholesome entertainment than IPL 09 – here is my top 5 reasons.

5. Cricket is a boring sport and IPL is trying to make it interesting and is quite successful in it. Politics has been the world’s most oldest profession/game/sport and Elections make it really interesting. So no contest in this front.

4. IPL has got too many statistics – Net run rate, Batsman’s average, Bowlers average – it all confuses me and is too much for my mind. I like what Election 09 is going to throw up – all within 545 seats distributed among 1025 parties – and you can play the permutation and combination to see who can make the magic 272 – except make sure you dont club the 2 big parties ( now why don’t they partner for a change…that will be fun!)

3. IPL needs gimmicks like cheer leaders, bollywood actress and actors to keep people glued to the screen. Netas need no help from any quarters. They goof up enough, say outrageous things, call names of their opponents – its like reliving kindergarden once again. 

2. IPL is short lived. You have it for a few weeks and then its all over. But Election 09 is going to continue for ever – according to most of the predictions it is going to be a hung assembly. It is bad for the economy but good for TV, Newspaper, Coffee machine gossip. A humble farmer, a 10000 shoe owner, a buffalo milker – everyone has a chance to lead us now. Tell me can IPL give you so much of thrill – that too not for just a couple of weeks – but for the many months to come? 

1. Best reason of all – IPL is a non entity in the world’s eyes – except Australia, SouthAfrica, Indian sub continent. No not England – they invented Cricket and pushed it down our throats – but now have switched to Soccer. But Election 09 will keep Mr.Obama, Zardari, Sarkozky, Putin – all glued to the television sets, twitter accounts or whatever – to find out how the political landscape is shaping. Which language should these leaders start learning – the language of the cows, language of the soil, language of kids ( hehe 🙂 )? 

We are giving them nervous breakdowns – because like it or not India is on the highway to becoming a super power and Election 09 is going to be a major event in the World’s history. IPL is a mere blip. Forget Mc.Cain vs Obama battle – that was nothing. Lets watch Congress vs BJP vs Third Front vs We-are-not-the-fourth-front vs The-unknown-front-to-be-formed after election front.

So, get ready by stocking up on Filter Coffee. Cut down on your morning jogging routine to give more time for reading Newspaper. Things are going to get very interesting. Trust me – you will not bother reading the sports page.