Daredevils’ poor show makes IPL sizzle fizzle

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Kartik Bahel, 22, has stopped jostling at the counters to secure tickets for the ongoing IPL matches in the city. It is not the busy schedules, but the lack of interest in Delhi team that has made IPL lose its sheen for Delhiites. While the team is at the lowest best with five straight losses in all five matches played till now, Delhi youngsters are hoping for a miracle and the city hubs are asking for some action.

Kartik, an area service manager with a leading automobile company, says he and his friends have stopped discussing IPL. “We have lost all our interest in the game due to Delhi team’s performance. Imagine they garnered the maximum points in last year’s edition and now they have lost all the matches despite having players like Unmukt Chand and Kevin Pietersen. The Devils are no longer a team that Delhi people are following. Since I personally feel that my loyalties lie towards them, I have stopped following the IPL,” he says.
Designer Nikhil Mehra feels that he has stopped connecting with the team alltogether. “Every other team has a player who fans emotionally connect with. Royal Challengers has Virat (Kohli), Mumbai Indians have Sachin Tendulkar, and Chennai team has Dhoni, but fans can no longer connect with Sehwag in Delhi Daredevils. I was personally not following the team but their poor performance is another factor that has made me lose interest completely. When a team plays badly, not only the morale of the players but morale of the fans also goes down. There comes a point when viewers and teams get disconnected. I guess this is what has happened with Daredevils,” explains Nikhil.
City hubs with elaborate IPS plans and offeres are baring the brunt the team’s poor performance. Sidharth Chadha of Cafe Ludus says, “Yes, it (poor performance) does dampen the spirits a bit but Delhi bounces back. Our IPL promotions have taken a setback, but I don’t attribute that only to Delhi’s performance. It is also the Navratra fasts that are responsible for the same. If I was to talk about a percentage, the business has come down by about 35-40 per cent. I am very hopeful that Delhi’s cricket loving population will come back and start enjoying the IPL season,” he says.
Khushi Soni, owner of Fat Ninja and cricket buff himself says, “IPL as a sport is really driven by each city’s performance. I admit that Delhi Daredevils’ performance hasn’t been great so far... but I believe the team will perform well soon. We already have some ongoing deals, but we plan to launch few more interesting packages for our guests,” says Khushi.
Aashita Relan of Royal China says, “Reducing the prices further will be impossible, but yes we are trying to come up with other marketing schemes to make things more exciting. Like a free shot for all every time the Devils hit a six,” ends Aashita.