Finally that IPL III mayhem is over, I thought of penning down my thoughts on the tournament and all the behind the scene activities being talked about.
The tournament saw frivolously paid cricketers playing 20-20 cricket. Assuming a player played in all the 14 matches (only league stage) and each match went on for 3 hours, the total cricket played by a player is 42 hours. So for 42 hours of cricket over a period of 45 days (not even 1 hour a day) a player gets millions. How can we justify such a price for anyone, especially someone like Yuvraj Singh (based on IPL III). How long will he continue to be in the team because he hit an english gentleman called Stuart Broad for six sixes in one over in 2007?
Anyway cricket is no more a gentleman's game, atleast in India. It has now become a money spinner for an organization called BCCI. There is an old english proverb that too much of anything is bad. That is precisely what IPL has done to BCCI. The richest cricket board in the world became greedy for more. With BCCI having so much financial power and autocratic bureaucracy, all this was bound to trickle down to the IPL committe as well. BCCI should be called Board for Cash and Currency in India.
The man who pulled off all this, Lalit Modi is now being harrassed by every tom, dick and harry for misappropriation of auctions, funds, broadcast rights and anything and everything under the sun. Very soon there will be a case on him for the toilets taps leaking in some pavilion lounge. If his brother in law got some business or his step son in law got some deals through Lalit Modi, consdering the Indian "jugad" set up, why is everyone shocked? Can BCCI and all the government officials blaming Lalit Modi own up and say that they have never used their position to seek a favor for their kith and kin? I can bet my life's earnings that not one of them cam vouch for it. Lalit Modi is the son of K.K. Modi, who is the chairman of a Rs. 40 billion business empire. As per succession laws all that will come to Lalit Modi. So money is not something new to him. He has seen money right from the day he was born. There is no need for him to get into unscruplous acts to make more money. And as far as getting business deals for his relations is concerned, this has been happening for ages. Havent we seen the likes of Murali Vijay in the Indian team when Kris Srikkanth is the chairman of selectors or a Nayan Mongia been drafted into the Indian team by Kiran More or a Deep Dasgupta being selected by Arun Lal? That is state level favoritism and this is family level. There is not much of a difference.
So BCCI, Shashank Manohar and Sharad Pawar, please do not try to fool yourselves and everyone in India and around the world who are IPL fans. The whole reason of you blowing up everything out of proprtion is because Lalit Modi pulled off IPL and took it to extent which you never imagined. His only fault was he thought he is bigger than the game itself and that led to his downfall.
And for Mr. Modi, go on and fight. The cricketing world will never forget your contribution. IPL was and always be your baby. You nurtured it for 3 years. Irrespective of what anyone might say, you ensured that in the end the winner was a game called "cricket" and for that I salute you for that.
