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Spark missing from IPL 4 opening ceremony

The glamour and glitz of the 2008 IPL opening ceremony is a thing of the past.

The tournament may have grown bigger in stature, but the colour and the magic that was so much a part of IPL openings, seems to have vanished. Yes, there was a Shah Rukh Khan to get the crowd going, but the Friday night fever never reached that pitch of old. There was no shortage of the lights, sound, camera and action - but the magic was just not there.

The BCCI bosses may well disagree, but the most hated man of Indian cricket administration was sorely missed. The maverick Lalit Modi, with his brand of eccentricities, used to bring a sense of life to the opening ceremonies of earlier editions. But that was just not visible at the MA Chidambaram Stadium as the artists went through their routine.

Was the opening flop anything to do with World Cup hangover?

Probably yes, as far as the administrators are concerned. But the crowd showed they were ready for the fun. The 40,000 had packed in long before the opening ceremony started and just as the fireworks lit up the evening sky over the Chepauk, they went wild. It was time for the yearly ritual of T20 extravaganza and the Chennai cricket lovers made it sure that they are ready for it.

After a couple of low-key performances, Sunidhi Chauhan almost challenged the fans to get going with "Aa dekhe zara, kisme kitna hain dum." For the first time, the crowd danced to the tune, even though the sound-box conked off in one of the stands.

"Come on, we have paid money for this," the voices of dissent said just as SRK took stage. The champion performer knows how to get the crowd going and he did just that in the 15 minutes he was on stage.

Dressed in black, he danced to 'Chak de India', transporting one and all to the glorious moments last Saturday when India lifted the World Cup. And to get the Chennai flavour to the proceedings, SRK signed off with Tamil chartbuster 'Apidi Podu' with Shriya Saran dazzling the stage with him.

But even as the final moments of the opening ceremony were taking place, the players of both the teams had sneaked into the ground. Probably it was their way of saying, "Enough is enough, let's get on with the game now".

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/Spark-missing-from-IPL-4-opening-ceremony/articleshow/7921562.cms

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