I have wondered for many years now why the sports merchandising business is one of the biggest and most lucrative industries the world over and the only reason that some clubs and boards are so rich and some barely break even. The Indian cricket board is probably the most greedy one you can find, just take a look at how they treat the indian cricketer like manual labour, throw obscene amounts of money at them and make them work like dogs, abusing their bodies to entertain us and fill the coffers - more on another piece which could potentially be explosive.
And there is no guessing where it all began, the USA, remember the days of trading cards with the baseball greats and then the basketball superstars that were a rage. Then slowly that passed away and entered memorabilia. Suddenly the TShirt that MJ sweated like a pig under was worth thousands of bucks, his jocks were probably worth 10s of them. Some joker who was probably playing around with clay suddenly discovered that he could make Babe Ruth look funny with a big head and a small miniature body and even resemble the great man - and great Figurine was discovered.
Then corporations realised that they could use these sportsmen and women who had crazy followers like me to con me into buying everything ranging from cereal to cars claiming that they ate them every morning and drove in them all day and night ! And we believed them unflinchingly, after all they were our sporting heros and icons right.
Sporting moments that in the good old days were treasured by all who witnessed it, now suddenly became available to anyone who had the money to afford it. So what if you were too busy to be able to watch that dramatic day when the great man took 10 wickets in an innings, you could always go out and buy a limited edition print that had all the pictures and signed by the great man himself - very affordable I must say if they are still available today.
The nation and atleast a couple of companies await with bated breath the 100th ,100 of the Little Genius, as if he is not under enough pressure already he sees that a soft drink brand he is endorsing has already launched a limited edition can celebrating the event. I mean come on - as Steve Waugh says, the man himself is well aware that Sir Don fell 4 runs short in his last innings and had an average of 99 ish. It is a game after all and there is only so much in the players control. Will all his endorsers just back off and let him do his thing.
Billions of dollars are generated by football clubs like Barcelona and ManU officially and many more billions unofficially through the sale of merchandise. I continue to refuse to pay 3500 bucks for a ManU jersey and make do with a cheap chinese fake. However i am not sure how long i can hold on since i am already trying to find someone who can bring me one from the UK where I can order online and get it cheaper.
Why is it so important for me to show everyone who I support and in the bargain make some corporate rich. Why cant I just be like I was during the good old days of radio. Why did I just order a Man U calendar for my daughters 10 th birthday and plan to take 2 more for my friends in Singapore ? Am I slowly succumbing to it ? I dont know.
Questions , Questions and more Questions - the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.
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