The Ooooos & Aaaaahs of IPL!

There is no doubt in the fact that in a short span of 3 years IPL has become the big daddy of entertainment. Even the likes of saas bahu fame Ekta Kapoor, Ramayana fame Ramanand Sagars and Mahabharata fame Chopras haven’t been able to capture the attention and imagination of the entire nation to such an extent. On the face of it the full credit should go to Mr Lalit Modi, the manner in which the man has commercialized, globalised and spiced up the boring white uniform sport invented by the Englishmen is absolutely commendable. The management and marketing gurus can write volumes on the mega successful phenomena of this man and to a good extent he truly deserves all this credit too. But when the fans are happy, franchise owners are happy, players are not complaining, media is minting money every season courtesy IPL, then why this fracas all of a sudden? Simply because one can never afford to mess with the Government and expect to go away cheaply. And seeds for this mess were sown last year itself when Mr Modi went against the Union Home Minister, Mr Chidambaram’s advice to slightly postpone and reschedule the IPL-2 because of the security issues due to the general elections at the same time. And logically too, general elections in the largest democracy on the planet is a far more important exercise than a sporting event. But Mr Modi went against the government with the backing of his cash rich parent body BCCI, whose financial might is potent enough to tackle any obstacle and scheduled the event in South Africa in just 15 days short notice. He garnered heaps of praise from all corners for his exemplary man-management skills and outstanding organizing abilities but this was all at the expense of a confrontation and a cold war with the reining government. But who cared, at least Modi didn’t, as he was basking in the glory of super successful staging of IPL-2. If this wasn’t enough, this year too he took one of the union minister ( Mr Shashi Tharoor) head on. Now whether Tharoor was right or not is a different debate altogether but it gave the wounded government an excellent opportunity to go hammers and tongs against Modi. Uproar in Parliament, Ignominy in media and unrest among fellow government ministers forced the government to oust Tharoor, but this for sure was a strategic move to tame the violent storm because per credentials Tharoor was far too qualified a minister to be expelled for such charges when the government have already seated corrupt heavy weights like Laloo, Mulayam and Maya for ages. So in all probability Tharoor will be back in the ministry in say 6 months time but this episode has well and truly exposed the manipulative ways of Modi and BCCI.

Not only this drama has raised questions on ministers like Pawar and Patel but it has also exposed the financial irregularities in various high budget deals. Though Modi has been defiant on all these charges right from the start, but the manner in which the I–T department has made startling revelations about possible rigging during the bidding process, benami stakes in various franchises and also prospective betting and match fixing activities, it has well and truly shaken the confidence of a common man who has been following cricket from years and idolizing the players to limits.The charges of bid rigging and benami stake, though illegal, do not actually impact a cricket fan to such an extent as the charges of betting and match fixing do. The match fixing episode of 1999-2000 left such a deep scar in the minds of the most avid cricket followers that the very thought of match fixing makes one feel dejected with the game. And watching some of the matches in the IPL one actually feels that they are fixed, because top class players dropping easiest of catches, teams losing matches from situations of impeccable strength and batsmen getting out in the most unimaginable ways is actually too hard to digest. But at the same time one feels when players of the reputation of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar are involved, there can’t be elements of match fixing in this tournament, but at times it’s even hard to console oneself inspite of these gentlemen playing the game. This certainly was the case when Mumbai fielders dropped dollies and Pollard was kept waiting in the dressing room till the penultimate over in the Finals. But again I consoled myself saying that it wasn’t fixed, may be the giant Pollard was fighting the bugs of loose motions that time and hence a delay in sending him to batJ. Whatever be it, a thorough inquiry against all such claims is definitely required, because this tournament is not only involving lots of moolah but it also involves the faith and belief of thousands of fans, which is priceless!

But the Modus Operandi of BCCI in cleaning out all the slush seems quite vague and the reasoning which they are giving to support their initiatives is even weirder. Firstly if they wanted to expel Modi, why were they waiting till the end of the tourney? They could have done that then and there, hence clearing exhibiting their impotency to handle the mega event on their own even at that juncture. Secondly BCCI has been time and again cribbing that they were not aware of all these financial irregularities and Mr Modi always kept them in the dark. So what were the other 12 members of the governing council members doing for the last 3 years? They were certainly not governing so either they were just sleeping around and warming the benches or they were also equal partners in crime and at the time of crisis, making Mr Modi the scapegoat. And thirdly the probe committee which they have formulated comprises of only the internal members, so unless there is an external, independent prober involved how can we trust the authenticity of the probe? All it will result in will be putting on all the charges on Modi and giving a clean chit to all the other governing council members, which in itself is a mockery of the entire process. I am not defending Mr Modi nor am I a big fan of Mr Lalit Modi but I am definetly a big fan of Indian Cricket and that’s why I am worried.

Though Mr Modi has managed the IPL in a great way and deserves full marks for his work but as a matter of fact if he payed a tax of Rs 8 lakhs 3 years back and is now paying a tax of a whopping 11 crores, then there is certainly something fishy, because he is not remunerated so heavily for his services to account for such a tax hike. So all it indicates is some wrong doing, leave apart those private jets and yachts which he has bought in this period. All these financial manipulations are apart from the arrogant and rash behavior and godly tantrums he has been throwing from last 3 years, behaving as if he isn’t just the IPL commissioner but also the whole sole proprietor of the entire country itself. With such an attitude his downfall was just a matter of time, and all his extraordinary people skills and organizing capabilities were bound to go down the drain. And for those who believed IPL can not survive without Mr Modi shouldn’t worry at all, because nobody in this world is indispensable and everybody is irreplaceable for sure, howsoever capable and efficient he/she may be. And for those who are demanding for a ban on IPL, forget it guys! Howsoever furious the government may be with Mr Modi, they can never ban IPL as it is generating a revenue of over 1000 crores every year for them in the form of tax. So by no means they will impose a ban on such lucrative machinery. All we can hope is a thorough cleansing of IPL so that our favorite sport remains our favorite and clean by all means!

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