As the Indian Problem league – Oops! Indian Premier League is set to commence the much awaited edition 3, problems and controversies seem to be hitting them in plenty!
Action seems to have begun even before the auction began. With a planned move that owners called “strategy” and the media describes as “balderdash”, ignoring players from our “friendly” neighboring nation stoked a fire. “Dildo” fuelled that fire with a masterstroke to promote his new movie angering the Shiv Sena and setting tongues waging. I’m not here to pass a judgement on the right thing to do – As most passionate Indians, I don’t think that the current political climate would aid Pakistani players to come in and play, not to forget, earn some top dollar and take that back to Pakistan. That said, I also believe that sports shouldn’t be mixed with other issues. Sadly though, our structures don’t permit the co-existence of both ideologies. Someone said, there’s got to be only one dagger in a sheath!
If the auction bit was wave 1, our friends in the rash state of Maharashtra seem to have a new sense of hatred for the Aussies! They threatened to stop the Aussies from playing in Mumbai and had the big bosses calling them. It’s not an unknown fact that their muscle is with the hooligans. From a commercial perspective, the cricket bosses were worried and rightly so. As much as we hate the Aussies for their erstwhile dominance of cricket, we can’t live without them either.
A Shane Warne is a top draw wherever he goes as are the Gilly’s, Hayden’s and the McGrath’s! Cricketers like them are no longer produced and looking at one of the initial tenants of the IPL, the young Indians can learn a ton from some legends like these! The magic unfortunately didn’t work and the Sena seems to have snubbed the cricket bosses. The Government can put up a brave face and promise the support, but it’s a question of time before ruthless elements like these rear their head and cause trouble. If a Government that can’t protect our borders and act on intelligence save innocent citizens, what hopes do these so called security measures have on an unruly crowd?
If this was not enough, the Deccan Chargers have issued a notice to the IPL for moving out matches from Hyderabad. Telangana or otherwise, someone at least believes matches should be played in Hyderabad – there’s a sense of government support (please as need for money) as this battle unfolds! I don’t know if this was big news or not as I didn’t see this breaking. Poor young Jadeja has been banned and he seeks to appeal against it! Being a recent feature on the international circuit, he’d hate it to be left out – forget the experience and all that blah blah!
With Mumbai being a potential issue and Hyderabad joining, what’s Lalit Modi going to do? Unfortunately for him, he has very little time on his hands to pull off a South African safari. There’s too much skin in the game to even consider moving the IPL beyond our shores and I watch with baited breath. Being that South Indian Tam Bram, isn’t it time we renamed the IPL??
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