IPL : retired hurt : 3 (4)

DHEERAJ KUMAR

(Writer is Senior Associate Producer in CNBC-Awaaz and IIMC alumnus) 

What happened on Sunday ( 10/10/10) in the BCCI meeting was bound to happen. Yeah, disqualification of two IPL teams was a big headline for news media but that wasn’t a shocker for me. This was the question of timing only, you can say, as the seeds of such things were sown when the then IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was sacked from his post. Once a blue eyed boy of every stakeholder of the Indian cricket, Lalit had overestimated himself and consequently failed to assess the implication of taking on an union minister. 

But the reality can be much more than what we are shown by BCCI. Does the disqualification of the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab teams relate only to the ownership pattern and alleged violation of the change in that? Is the largest cricket body in the world under the pressure of Union Government to take action against these two teams? Will everything be normal after this step by BCCI? And most importantly, will the IPL be as big a brand as it used to be?

New bad boy of Indian Cricket Lalit Modi

The whole IPL episode is a classic example of how can we destroy the opportunity to grow big in any area of the life. It is a well known fact that IPL has been able to garner the support from every corner of the nation when it was initiated by Lalit Modi. The players, industrialists and Bollywood stars had opened their heart (and their coffers as well) to welcome the move and took active part in making the biggest TAMASHA of the cricket world an instant hit. But after the action of Sunday, would the mood be same as before? Will the sponsors and advertisers support the IPL as they did in last 3 seasons as there is a question mark over the fourth season which is to take place in April next year? And, if the IPL-4 is delayed or postponed, it would translate into a big loss for the brand image of the IPL as well as the millions of rupees for all the stakeholders.

Nothing is Pretty

For three consecutive years, everything seemed to be normal but when the cracks appeard in the cupboards, the skeletons came out in the open one by one. And note that these skeletons were there from the very beginning, only a curtain was there to conceal the truth. What Lalit Modi did is under the inspection and interrogation but what BCCI is doing now, is not an issue of discussion so far. Isn’t it strange that as big action as the disqualification of licenses of two IPL teams has been taken by BCCI but no one is batting eyelid over it? It  may not be coincidence only that owners of both the teams include the relatives of Modi, so there is a possibility of witch hunting here in the disguise of cleaning the mess of IPL. But if all other things are kept aside, should not the ownership of Chennai Super Kings be under the vigilance of BCCI, as the BCCI president-elect N. Srinivasan is the owner of the team? Should not the BCCI ask him to choose either of the two as there are pretty chances of clash of interests here? And, it is noted here that even the Supreme Court has taken this issue into consideration.

Main aayi hoon .... lootne ! 

No doubt that taking on Shashi Tharoor proved a boomerang for Lalit Modi and that’s why all the actions of BCCI and Government agencies against him. Prima facie, the pressure of Government is visible on BCCI as IPL is not merely a sporting event now, it has become a cash cow for all the concerned parties. (If it isn’t the case, why on earth the likes of Sharad Pawars, Praful Patels, Shashi Tharoors, Rajiv Shuklas and Narendra Modis would take interest in it, for the betterment of cricket in country?) IPL is a money making machine for these people in this cricket crazy country and no one would let go the opportunity to encash the craze. So, there are chances that in the very near future, we would see that Modi is a history in Indian Cricket Scenario and BCCI claiming the purity of the game returns in IPL, but some vital questions would remain unanswered as no one wants to reveal the facts, all of them are interested to show only that truth they want to show (and as I always say there is nothing as such truth or false; facts remain the same, whether they are truth or not depends on our subjectivity and how we perceive it).