IPL was an easy target for the power hungry to swoop down on. It was perfect. There was no land laws or farmer’s lands to forcibly acquire, no licenses for factories, no labour laws. Nothing but an escalating brand at a hyped values that seemed to have no limits. Hyped because the team owners are still in negative cash flow unless they cash in on the brand itself.
Perfect. So perfect that it seemed almost impossible. And so everyone that had power, either in cash or in political clout (often both) swooped down desperately to jump on a train that was fast leaving the tracks.
Except in that desperation they forgot to cover their own tracks. And in the mad crazy tussle that ensued for control and ownership, the contenders forgot an unwritten law in the nexus that has always existed between money, big business and political power. That you do not wash your dirty linen in public.
They did not contend with twitter either. A simple technology that was transferring power to individual voices. Even if those voices were from within the players.
So now the pandora’s box is open. It’s nothing that we did not already know, but for the first time the players are out battling in full public view. Like another game happening outside the stadium that the nation and media is also transfixed by. A nation that should pay more attention to other matters. Like poverty and hunger. Like the fast disappearing fresh water resources. Like terrorism. Like the rebellion from within the country in the form of a Maoist revolt.
I have no doubt that when the fun and games are over, when the media attention has died down, the warring opponents will find a way to resolve the issues and settle down in the same club as if this never happened.
I have no doubt that we will continue to enjoy the pretty fabulous and entertaining game that T20 is, barring those insufferable commercials that take up far more time than the cricket itself. And I have no doubt that other competitors will come in and break the stranglehold that the BCCI has over the Indian players. That will happen as young new players will rebel against the IPL team owners too, and would be willing to join another club. For IPL will gradually erode loyalties to the national team. Which is the real power base of the BCCI
And Lalit Modi will enjoy a quite retirement overseas with his yachts and jets. Shashi Tharoor will continue to win more elections, but will eventually give up and go back to New York and write more books.
And the political opponents will divide the spoils amongst themselves, and the media will divert our attention to some other great melodrama.
After all, does anyone remember the names of the young people that died in the Pune bomb blasts ?
We live int the age of sensationalism – so no amount of righteous attitudes can correct the decay! Only when us people-mango people- come awake to the rot in our system- which we all acknowledge but do little to rectify it- can there be a change. Till then our fates are sealed- watch the circus- partake if you wish- stand on the fence if u wish!
Someone once said, The greater the civilization, the bigger the contradiction.
On one hand states don’t have money to implement right to education, IPL boasts of biggest cricketing extravaganza. While people die of heatwave in Orissa, the same state hosts home matches for the Deccan chargers.
The first few games of IPL convinced me, this is not cricket. The silly full-tosses and missed catches were so glaring, that any of those could have ended a kids aspiration in school cricket. Those who have played the game in some form, would agree; those who never had the chance and picked the game on TV, would be furious at me for such honest comments.
In this country, gambling is banned, so we don’t have casinos in India, even government run state lottery was closed down in many states. Yet you can freely bet on IPL in many clubs, even on streets and even on phone. Just the other day, there was a news that a student had committed suicide after suffering huge loss in gambling on IPL.
Can we link these silly play, major media attention & gambling into the dreaded curse of match-fixing. Some natural radical people like me would say, “Isn’t that obvious?”. The neo-cricket fans would be outraged once again.
When figures of hundreds of crores were talked about in the media, I wondered if these were fair money! I have few more issues with how IPL is run:
A. How can professional services be auctioned, what if the player has some reservations or Is he a slave with no rights! Imagine actors being casted through an auction, that would be funny isn’t it!
B. Does all foreigners working for IPL teams have a work permit. Remember Indian cheer-girls were banned in SA and Pakistani players not considered because of lack of permission.
C. If It is truly an Indian League, How come all the price Tags are in US$. Has it got all the clearances from RBI!
Is media who has to take up all the issues? why are people so improne? what are they doing are they so busy? Just reading media one has to bias opinion? and media will decide when the go after issue or whey thay want to go cold? who is controlling media? lot of unanswered questions here
but then that’s how it is always. why will, what is, what has always been, change? tomorrow, something else will happen, and you will be typing much identical lines, portraying much identical thoughts. there’s only so much words can do … beyond that …
Hey!
Very nice makeover! I like your photo on bottom right down with your toys (the shooting equipments)
Yep this never ending IPL drama is quite a puzzle but would like to sum all this up in one song
“The whole thing is that kay bhaiyya, sab say bada rupiyya”
Again, nice makeover!
And good day!
Shekhar ji,
We all agree that the country of more than a billion people is facing so many problems, but the main reasons are:
1) Most of the people do not have a time, or give time to think over the matter. That makes the people “sensationalism”. They believe what others say, as they do not care to understand what might be the matter lying behind.
2) People think what they think and understand is correct, while the other person is wrong. They can only be made to understand that the other person is also correct according to what situations other person is facing, only when he is made to face those situations. As an example general people consider Maoist to be very wrong, learned people understand that the maoist is not as bad, its the conditions that have made him so, but still both of the group fail to understand why a maoist can kill an innocent people. Even very learned people cant understand why maoist kills normal people. This can only be understood if the person is made to see the situation of the maoist, the hunger, the poverty, the exploitation, the discontentment. When the person himself will not only see, but also feel the discontentment, feels it as agressively as the maoist, then he can understand why innocent farmers take up weapon.
Sir these things are too too risky to be shown in print media or in a film, as films show the perspective of the director and all of the audience will not understand the motive of the film. The film will become very very controversial. But sir, I am working on a media that is much much more powerful than the films, that gives the user independence to make choices. That is computer games. Games give the option to people to make choices.
3) Sir also many people who know what is wrong, why the problems are caused, fail to find the proper solution to avoid the problem. For example: Some of us understand that IPL is wrong for a country like India, where many die of hunger everyday. But even those who feel that, do not know how to handle the problem, what is the solution. Even if we know solution of the problem, then even its very hard to tell people that what is correct and what path they should follow.
Sir to deal with all the three problems and to educated the society on what social path one should follow, by placing them in the same position, and then allowing to make them a choice, I am making a Computer Game.
We have started a Game Development Company with the help of IIT Kanpur for the technicals. Sir, I would like to discuss with you at length about my project and would like your support. Sir, I think this is a very good medium for a very noble cause.
Sir I was trying to talk to you about this, but i was unable to find your contact.
Sir, can you please spare some time to discuss on the concept. Sir my contact is Utkarshx@iitk.ac.in
phone no 9936339580.
Regards,
Utkarsh Shukla
Btech, IIT Kanpur
Founder, Bhramm Games.
Cricket has not become a sport but a business. Thats the said part in our country.
Whether it is sports, cinema etc. the focus is on money making.
Just imagine the amount of money spent on IPL was actually spent on encouraging children in developing themselves in various sports.
Hi Shekhar,
This message is out of place for this blog but just wanted to suggest you to read this book when you get chance to- HALF THE SKY BY Nicholas D. Kristof & Sherly WuDunn ,Inspiring stories of turnining opperession into opportuniy for women worldwide.
I am reading it now and its a big time eye opner.
‘You show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker’ ~ Malcolm X
By pursuing his own interest (the individual) frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
– Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations 1776
wish we could have words of wisdom from Adam Smith & his ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments’ dropping from the heavens, with IPL and LKM as a case study! Quite literally a lot of ‘invisible hands’ at play here…now becoming very visible 🙂
On 23rd april i woke up and grabbed the paper in the morning which generally i do…headline-daughter of aviation minister misused the power of his father by diverting the scheduled flight..other NCP leaders’s entangled in mess of IPL,supreme court is giving direction to set up SIT on mining irregularities and at the bottom of the paper news of the sex scandals of swami nityananda………..and on top of paper news about srilankan prez how is helping his Bro…..
First thing came to my mind was that is nothing gud is happening in this world……Or we want this kind of news only and paper dishes out this becoz they just want to sell….its been long i have seen some good thing reported on paper………
Wat is true….nothing gud is happening or NEWS is this only………….
I watched you on Fox, History and entertainment with Shirish Mishra
Hey Shekhar, you look more like a “sardaran da munda” with your hair on head risen as if it is a “joora”. I like the pictue.
As for comments, what I wrote about IPL here http://www.bigtamasha.com/2009/04/funny-that-even-site-should-start-on.html should make an interesting reading.
Or here http://www.bigtamasha.com/2009/04/ipl-chairman-analysing-pitch.html
and here for that matter:http://www.bigtamasha.com/2010/04/ipl-cricketdil-kare-dhak-dhak.html
Harb
The line between cricket and the usual Bollywood entertainment, with star worship, parties, lame movies and mindnumbing mediocre shows and media overdose – seems to be blurring. IPL awards show? 🙂 Yuvraj and co. partying like maniacs – even during the world cup? If I look back on it, IPL has done more damage than good – cricket doesn’t seem like a sport anymore, where one enjoys the strategy, excitement and competition. It seems to be turning into yet another avenue for the 3rd rate entertainment outlets. The ‘world championship’ seems like just a distraction for the team. They’d much rather get back to the bad IPL cricket and parties. Even Sachin is quite happy to just break meaningless records and skip it when the cricket really gets serious. Boy I’d give anything for a boring old Test match with a rest day in between now, and players in whites toiling away for 8 hours. That will build some character 🙂
I don’t know whether it’s jusst me or if perhaps everyone else encountering problemms with your blog.
It seems like some oof the text inn yoir content are running off tthe screen.
Can someone else please provide feedback
and llet me know if this is happening to them too?
This may be a issue with my web browser because I’ve had this happen before.
Appreciate it
I lost my sister ……