Anant’s blog: The fake fake IPL player

It’s interesting that there are tens of thousands of cricket fans who think that fakeiplplayer really is a player.

When I first heard of the blog (thank you, Sanjay), I read a few posts. Good read. Funny. Entertaining.

But was it a work of fiction or non-fiction?

Let’s presume, for the moment, that the blogger was, indeed, a player for KKR and that Shah Rukh was livid at being referred to as whatever fakeiplplayer calls him and wanted to catch him.

It couldn’t be that difficult.

First, make a list of all the players who speak English reasonably well. Those who can’t couldn’t be fakeiplplayer.
Now, focus on all those left on your list. Figure out those who are gadget and tech friendly. You’ll be surprised at how much the list would shrink. (Take me; I’m ok at English but a disaster at the simplest of operations on my mobile. iPod? Forget it).

Obviously,  fakeiplplayer needs access to the Internet. All SRK has to do is to ask the hotel for the internet access charges for the rooms where ‘the suspects’ are staying.

I can’t imagine that fakeiplplayer is using his mobile for blogging; he has been far too prolific for that to be a practical way to operate. His room-mate would see him, wouldn’t he? Unless, of course, he was sending messages from the loo. In which case he would be spending too much time in the loo.

Spend a couple of minutes (as I did) and it’s easy to figure out how to catch him, Shah Rukh.

Don’t have the time, SRK? You could go to Globe Detective Agency and they would out the blogger before you could say Appam Chutiya.

And yet fakeiplplayer blogs on and on and doesn’t get caught.

Perhaps because he is a fake player and has nothing to do with the team. And the cynic in me comes to the fore and says, no, he’s real.

He has everything to do with the team. He’s an integral part of KKR’s marketing effort – and he’s probably not a player at all. He’s a writer. And SRK knows who he (or she is) and loves him (or her).

Because fakeiplplayer has done more to build the Kolkata Knight Riders brand than all the paid media and the physical branding props have.

Because fakeiplplayer has made KKR the most recalled team of the IPL.

Because fakeiplplayer’s blog is a must visit for tens of thousands every day.

Even if fakeiplplayer was the real thing, there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on.

He’ll never get caught.

Does SRK want the greatest ongoing viral marketing exercise in Indian marketing to die a premature death?