More »
It's not necessary to look at any situation in which politicians are involved as a political battle. As when a group of powerful people contest for key positions in a democratic set up, irrespective of them being politicians or not & the name one assigns to the contest, it always needs garnering support. So there's no question of who stooped more (as politics obsessed Indian media and mindset wants us to believe).
The balance of cricket economics has surely shifted towards the Asian block,owing both to numbers and cricket craziness; so whenever people contest for democratic bodies, the tilt will invariably be towards the block of the Asian cricket playing nations. This has been proved time and again.
John Howard got the pasting, as Pawar has to be the ICC president; and as a consequence John Howard can't take the subordinate's post, as someone who supported Pawar has to get the honour of filling the smaller chair.
So it's not necessary to consume the usual 'the politicians playing dirty tricks on each other' debate all the time. Media, particularly the Indian media knows what Indian psyche likes to hear and see, and that's why it incorporates the 'dirty politics angle' wherever it sees politicians involved.
So the John Howard incident is just a contest where powerful and influential got involved.We better believe it like this. Rest is just for the consumption of masses.
Any contest doesn't become dirty if politicians are invloved in it
Sharad Pawar Confesses
involvement in any IPL team or in the bidding process"
Lalit Modi - Love him, hate him…
He didn’t allow a free regime in sports.
Any sport or game shouldn’t be the franchise of only the rich, famous and powerful. If you look at Golf (in India), which is supposedly a sport only the rich and famous indulge into there are many among the top 10-20 golfers in the country who started off as caddies. Don’t think these are the Steve William’s of India. These are kids from poor families who worked in a club fetching the bag and balls of the rich and famous. I am not sure if the golfing establishment in India did anything to throttle these caddie turned players, leave alone small bickering here and there. I am talking about organized throttle here.
That is precisely why I don’t like Lalit Modi, the way he throttled ICL. And in effect took away a valuable couple of years from some promising Indian talent, the way he did it was despicable. I am sure we remember the extent his regime stooped to those days. Denying use of facility for those who signed up to the ICL, cancelling the pension of the ex-cricketers who were part of ICL were some gems we would remember. If only the PCR (Prevention of Civil Rights) Act of 1955 could be used against the IPL, there might me more cases than all those pending cases in the Indian courts.
But as they say “Every dog has its day”. Modi had his day and also saw its end. And when it did end, it ended as a shock to him of course and to the cricketing world as a whole. While one could say he has been paid back by the same coin, it might be a little harsh to say that.
Whatever he is, this is the man who made the Indian cricketing establishment sit up, be respected and feared by the other boards and the ICC. The man whose marketing techniques ensured the world had to buy the arguments of Shashank Manohar’s father Mr. Manohar and let “The Obnoxious Weed” off (make no mistake, I am not justifying what the Aussies did). It is the Indian money that the other cricket boards envy and fear about.
And Modi got them the money and with it came the new muscle.
Although Modi hijacked the idea from ICL, he still applied his mind like every boss in the world does to give that idea a bit of tweak and make it his.
There wasn’t a concept of franchise in ICL, Modi got all his rich, famous & powerful friends to come in and buy a team. There were people who said he is copying the western model of club sports, that he was trying to replicate the Super Bowl. There were also a few who went a bit farther and said IPL would the Super bowel (aka Shit) of cricket. That it would fail, collapse etc. We have seen 3 editions till date, and one last year where Modi took on the Indian government and moved the IPL to South Africa. Still, it was successful.
IPL gave life, money and fame to almost everyone who talked, wrote or involved in it. Including those who wrote books about the IPL model, talked about the economics of the league and even to a guy who masqueraded as a Fake IPL Player during the last season. This guy is now promoting his book across platforms, thanks to IPL & more importantly to its creator, Lalit Modi.
A couple of years ago we only saw shirts & trousers (of players) that had a logo. Modi rewrote the rules, now we see many logos that make up the shirt & trouser. Advertisers thought T20 was too quick a game that doesn’t offer enough advertising time. Modi made sure there were enough advertisements (meaning many happy advertisers who feasted on the eyeballs that IPL created) by creating the concept of a “Timeout” in cricket. He even branded the hits, catches, misses and almost everything imaginable in the game and even more like the annoying blimp, commercials on the big screen in the ground between balls.
Now that the business model is established and is getting the returns BCCI wanted, they don’t want Modi. This is typical of the BCCI and the brand of politics we have seen there. Dalmiya, Rungta, Lele, Dungarpur are examples of those who fell prey to the same brand of politics they espoused.
In all these there are some interesting questions that might well have some very interesting answers. Will we have those interesting answers out in the public domain is a million dollar question. Sp here are the questions…
You had a IPL governing council with some full and part time politicians as members. Would you want to exonerate those governing council members and bring in charges only on Modi?
Shouldn’t a Rajeev Shukla or a Sunil Gavaskar or Ravi Shastri be equally held responsible for what has happened?
Is Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s “we should have… We didn’t ” interviews in media be considered an excuse to let the governing council off while Modi is vilified?
How justified is Shashank Manohar trying to put the blame squarely on the professionals who were part of the IPL set up for all that has happened ?
To top it all, this is probably the second time Sharad Pawar has been unusually quiet since the food grain shortage issue was discussed in the Indian parliament.
All this said… I think Modi is going to make a comeback soon as the IPL commissioner. What do you think?
It happens only in Indian cricket!!
KhufiaBaaz: Conflictofinterestwallahs Anonymous
The leaked minutes of the last Conflictofinterestwallahs Anonymous meeting!
The President: I declare this meeting of Conflictofinterestwallahs Anonymous open. As usual, the new members of our support group will introduce themselves.
SF: Hi everyone, my name is Shashi Furore and I have several conflicts of interest. I am a Minister of State in the External Affairs Ministry in charge of the Middle East. I may also have a few business interests in Dubai. I am a member of the Congress Party. I may also be a writer of bad novels that have been critical of Nehru. Thank you.
LS: Hi, I am Lalit Shady and I have several conflicts of interest. I am the BigDick of the worlds biggest sporting league. My family members may have financial interests in certain teams in this league. Thank you for welcoming me.
The President: Everyone, please join me in welcoming these two conflictofinterestwallahs.
Everyone: Welcome Furore, welcome Shady.
The President: Now to briefly introduce myself. I am Sharad Gawar, the Cabinet Minister for Agriculture. I may also be the richest farmer in this country.
Where are you dear sir, we need someone as able to respond?
Well, we paged you yesterday, but you didn’t respond. Your stoic silence has been taken for granted by the South African's, they think they could get away with murder.
Don’t believe me?
See what they have done. They have dropped Johan Botha from their squad for the final ODI.
Why?
They want to shield him, from being called again. So he will not be called now, unless you, our dear sir broke his silence and called him, names.
Look at what the man himself says (and I quote the good guys from cricinfo)
"We know what we want to do and we know what we need to do," Botha told Cricinfo. "It's pretty simple."
What does this mean?
This means many things to us.... conspiracy sir.
1. May be they are planning to send his body double (Johan Onna) for the test in Australia and get Botha them cleared
2. Or, may be they are tutoring him now. On how not to bowl how he bowls now, during this break from the final ODI
Your silence is painful dear sir. Yes sir, more painful than how batsmen felt when Steve Bucknor declared them out (he says he is retired but still sir, the batsmen feel the pain).
And my dear sir no worries, I assure you even this time if you open you will not close that easily. No court and no case sir. Yes sir, I mean your sweet mouth simply can’t, those harmonic words that come out.
(Y)our scope is expanding, you will first finish Johan Botha and cricket South Africa off and then come to India. Here we will say “Hello” to Gill paji, our sports minister and a big “Thank you” to him. We need to extract an answer from Harbajan and Dhoni, irresponsible guys they are sir. First tell them how important the Padma awards are, and then demand an answer as to why they missed the ceremony. We need to ask them if that was because of an impending income or expenditure. Yes sir, an ad shoot or a girl friend. You know what we try to mean here…
And sir we have this spineless ICC’s meeting happening in Dubai to decide if cricket could be played in Pakistan or by ICL.
Sorry sir, I know this might be confusing, but two things sir. One my English is not as perfect as yours and two this particular item (line) in the ICC agenda was drafted by Sharad Pawar.
And sir I repeat, please save us & cricket sir. We believe, there have only been two indelible icons in world history who saved the world – general or cricket. One, Hercules and the important two is you sir.
So please respond sir.
How would they vote?
One of my friends was concerned, with the General Elections looming and IPL coinciding, that too in a different continent. How would his favorite Indian cricketers vote?
He being the most optimistic person I know (perhaps more optimistic than Munaf Patel – The fielder, while attempting a sliding stop) he was of the opinion that they would take a mid tournament break, chart a plane and comeback to vote. The most optimistic statement of his was that the cricketers are law abiding, constitution loving Indian citizens.
There were also a couple of others who were of the opinion that the Indian cricket team should be equated to the Indian armed forces in terms of their electoral rights, they should be allowed a postal vote. While I appreciate the love and concern we have for our cricketers rights, there are a couple of things we need to remember.
Indian army is not registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. As many of us might know, the President of India is supposed to be the Supreme commander of the Indian armed forces (not Sharad Pawar or a Lalit Modi, yet !!).
Indian armed forces truly represent the Indian citizens, it is a governmental body. BCCI is a private society who by their own admission to courts say that they don’t represent India. So why does one give BCCI (a private society) the same privilege the Indian armed forces get.
The average Indian cricketer is so well off these days that he need not necessarily vote to get his MP or ministers, he can buy one whenever he wants.
And even otherwise, I wouldn’t want to believe that anyone sitting abroad, especially the Indian cricketers (working or at leisure) would want to spend money on air tickets and time to come and vote. This is, unless you are Aamir Khan and that too because someone paid you (in cash or kind) to act in an advertisement and made you say that you would comeback (from your vacation) to vote. Now you have to because you have announced your intent in public and you would get sufficient PR if and when you comeback to vote.
Facing the music
"I am pretty used to talking. Even when I was playing cricket my managers asked me to address the media. I think if you are to the point while addressing people that give a good impression," the former cricketer said.
Sunil Gavaskar ?
Manoj Prabhakar ??
Sebastian Coe ??? *
Sharad Pawar ????
Sachin Tendulkar ?????
* I know you are abusing me, pls go on… You thought it was a faux pas ?? I was just listing some seasoned politicians out !!
I am sure, had you missed that rediff.com story (like how I almost did…) you wouldn’t know who this gentle man is…
Yes… theboysplayedwell… itwasaneasypitchtobatonbattingwicketgoodtosstowinandtheboysplayedwellthankyou…
Mohammad Azharuddin was the one who said so…
I tried imagining how he would speak in the parliament, just in case he gets elected…
Theboysaresufferingtheconditionsareterribletheycan’tbathnowateracuteshortageI’msurewewould workonthispositivelyandperformwelltommorowthankyou
I would advise you guys take a breath control session before even trying that…
Guys from Hyderabad… get ready to face the music, yes those music of speeches. He is pretty used to talking.
At least he says so...
What do they think of themselves?
by Raja Baradwaj
They scuttled Australia's chance of hosting the next world cup to bring it this side, which was okay. It could be appreciated as a shrewd political maneuver by the BCCI to rake in more money.
They arm twisted the ICC to make Sharad Pawar its chief. It was still okay, the BCCI was doing what the English had been doing all this while.
They came up with all sorts of stupid bans to hurt ICL and the young players involved. They had started crossing the threshold, power was getting onto their heads. I was thinking what more could they? Where are we heading?
Overnight a monkey becomes Maa Ki. It was fine, knowing what a Harbajan is capable of. But when Maa Ki comes at the cost of a tour, it becomes a very ugly Maa Ki. Harbajan might not have said anything, Symonds might have been right, but that question of who was right looses its relevance the moment when a board steps in and says, "just say my man didn’t say, else I would have the tour cancelled". Made me try guessing what next from BCCI.
In came Ranatunga, the cow swallowing cricketer (as per Shane Warne, the great IPL ambassador) as the head of SL cricket. He was heard saying, the ban on ICL players and umpires to participate in the domestic cricket tournaments is off. Pat came the reply from BCCI, "at the cost of us stopping the aid we promised for SL cricket". And bang came a clarification, this lifting of ban is only till the end of the 2008 season. I was laughing my guts out about what a joke cricket had become in the hands of the "chosen ones", the Noah's of the present day's cricket.
They even threatened the poor Bangladesh board to submission when (many of) their players joined the ICL, by offering to do more for Bangla cricket and accommodating more of their players in IPL. I thought fantastic, it couldn’t get worse.
And now, the despots at BCCI have gone a step ahead. They have supposedly put on hold all bilateral series against Sri Lanka. So what happens to the FTP calendar? And more importantly what happens to the authority of ICC?
There are also people who see a conspiracy theory in this putting on hold of all the bilateral series. They claim the BCCI is afraid that certain favorite cricketers of them might have their career' buried heads down if they are pitted against the quality duo of Mendis & Murali again. BCCI is enforcing this hold strategy to avoid this possibility.
As a bored cricket lover I would like to say…
Enough of this boardroom cricket, let's start playing cricket on the fields again.
What’s not in a name.
There are nine lives with the Irani name on that mother’s little helper page on cricinfo.
None of them have the surname Cup or Trophy. So I take it the Irani Trophy is not named after any of them.
Appears it's named after a certain, or rather uncertain Z Irani, treasurer of the BCCI from 1928 to Kingdom come and from 1948 to more Kingdoms come, a record 32 years. And if that wasn’t enough he was also the BCCI President for three years from 1966-67 to well, not exactly Kingdom come.
Be wonderful when they name a tournament after Pawar. Be aptly called the Pawar Cup. I can almost see the logo image, can you?
