IPLGate: "Na deshyudh, na dharmayudh... ye hai dharti par karmayudh"
The Indian Premier League started as this colossus of entertainment. It was the perfect mashup of cricket, India's biggest infatuation along with Bollywood, glitz, glamour and huge sums of money. Sure, the international cricket stars rubbed shoulders against each other. But the best of IPL was these magic moments when somone like Shadab Jakati or Rajat Bhatia foxed the likes of Glichrist and Hayden or Manish Pandey or Shrivats Goswami hammered Dale Steyn and Shane Warne. For almost two months India did nothing but IPL. Cinama halls didn't see movies releasing, TV didn't see new serials starting and I'm sure local businesses found their clientele more glued to television that visiting restaurants or grocery stores. It was almost as if all the money involved in anything associated with "having-a-good-time" was routed to the IPL. Nothing could match the excitement of a three hour T20 match between two privately owned teams. Seriously, the IPL was something India couldn't have enough of.
And now suddenly the IPL has kinda surprised itself. It has proved that there was something that was more interesting (sensational?) that the IPL matches. It was "IPLGate" :). So even though I keep an eye on the cricket matches, I find myself more interested in what Lalit Modi and co. are upto. How many teams did he actually own? How much was his stake? How much money did he swindle? And much more... It also gives me some pleasure in saying "See... I told you... How does someone like SRK, or even worse Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, have these huge sums of money? None of them (nor their respective past and present better halves are as rich as Ambani or Mallya." I may be proved completely wrong and someone could come up with numbers that add up. But you can't deny that I had my moment :D.
The last few days have been especially exciting. What started off as a tiff between a super suave junior minister (popularly found near the terms "External Affairs" (:D), "cattle class", "tweet", etc.) and Lalit, turned into a big brawl and now seems like a full fledged war (where the junior minister has made way for IT officials). The interesting part is that this war is not about who wins. It is about who won't lose.
. If Lalit Modi loses, he will lose his position as the IPL commisioner, pot loads of money and whatever else he must have been cooking behind the scenes.
. If Lalit Modi does not lose, the BCCI might lose its credibility as it failed to act against Modi, the IPL might lose since everyone will continue to look at it as a black money powered, tax evading tournament which didn't clean itself up when the opportunity presented itself.
. If Lalit Modi and the BCCI agree on some common terms and decide to settle the dispute, most likely they'll be able to keep everything under wraps. Given that they have tons of money, politicians from the ruling and the opposition parties, influential businessmen and some people from the media on their side, that wouldn't be too big a problem. In such a case, India loses :(.
Well, India loses in all the three cases above :(.
The best part about an intriguing thriller is the climax. When we almost always find out that someone is schizophrenic :D. But at least there is something we are looking forward to.
So what is it that we are all looking forward to in IPLGate? Would we rejoice if Lalit Modi was found guilty of malpractices and sent to jail? Would we sulk if the IPL was terminated indefinitely? Even if it continues, would IPL be the same again?
The best outcome, I think, might be that Lalit Modi makes way for someone just like him but honest and transperant to be the new head of the IPL. But unfortunately, such a person may not exist and the IPL may never be the same again.
And now suddenly the IPL has kinda surprised itself. It has proved that there was something that was more interesting (sensational?) that the IPL matches. It was "IPLGate" :). So even though I keep an eye on the cricket matches, I find myself more interested in what Lalit Modi and co. are upto. How many teams did he actually own? How much was his stake? How much money did he swindle? And much more... It also gives me some pleasure in saying "See... I told you... How does someone like SRK, or even worse Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, have these huge sums of money? None of them (nor their respective past and present better halves are as rich as Ambani or Mallya." I may be proved completely wrong and someone could come up with numbers that add up. But you can't deny that I had my moment :D.
The last few days have been especially exciting. What started off as a tiff between a super suave junior minister (popularly found near the terms "External Affairs" (:D), "cattle class", "tweet", etc.) and Lalit, turned into a big brawl and now seems like a full fledged war (where the junior minister has made way for IT officials). The interesting part is that this war is not about who wins. It is about who won't lose.
. If Lalit Modi loses, he will lose his position as the IPL commisioner, pot loads of money and whatever else he must have been cooking behind the scenes.
. If Lalit Modi does not lose, the BCCI might lose its credibility as it failed to act against Modi, the IPL might lose since everyone will continue to look at it as a black money powered, tax evading tournament which didn't clean itself up when the opportunity presented itself.
. If Lalit Modi and the BCCI agree on some common terms and decide to settle the dispute, most likely they'll be able to keep everything under wraps. Given that they have tons of money, politicians from the ruling and the opposition parties, influential businessmen and some people from the media on their side, that wouldn't be too big a problem. In such a case, India loses :(.
Well, India loses in all the three cases above :(.
The best part about an intriguing thriller is the climax. When we almost always find out that someone is schizophrenic :D. But at least there is something we are looking forward to.
So what is it that we are all looking forward to in IPLGate? Would we rejoice if Lalit Modi was found guilty of malpractices and sent to jail? Would we sulk if the IPL was terminated indefinitely? Even if it continues, would IPL be the same again?
The best outcome, I think, might be that Lalit Modi makes way for someone just like him but honest and transperant to be the new head of the IPL. But unfortunately, such a person may not exist and the IPL may never be the same again.
posted by Shri at 2:59 PM
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