Death threat to Shashi Tharoor, talk of Lalit Modi attempting to bribe, Tharoor's reported love connections... the Kochi franchise controversy has done nothing to improve India's cricketing image
Death threat to Shashi Tharoor, talk of Lalit Modi attempting to bribe, Tharoor's reported love connections... the Kochi franchise controversy has done nothing to improve India's cricketing image
Just as Lalit Modi's Indian Premier League was attracting acceptance, appreciation and admiration from the most discerning of administrators in the cricketing world, the Kochi franchise controversy has made Indian cricket look wealthy but dubious; prosperous yet obese.
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| Shashi Tharoor (left) and Lalit Modi
PIC: IPL2010/GETTY IMAGES |
Before the third edition of the IPL began, the decision of team owners to not pick the cavalier Pakistani cricketers snowballed into an India vs Pakistan issue over an event called an Indian domestic tournament.
The media was kept busy and followers of the game were divided over whether the Pakistanis deserved a share of the IPL participation pie. Effigies made it to our living rooms. No lives were lost. Luckily!
Yesterday, controversy took a new spin when reports said Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor received a death threat through a text message for his connection with the Kochi franchise. A little later, Modi was accused of offering to bribe the Kochi franchise to withdraw from the race to be one of the two new teams from IPL IV.
Allegations remain allegations until proved, but they have surfaced in the first place because of the obscene kind of money that the IPL is associated with. The game needs to grow, so money is important for cricket's blood stream. But not to an extent where it poisons the soul and that is exactly what the IPL is doing to the game in the opinion of several, well-meaning cricket lovers.
Ten years ago, the match-fixing scandal turned the game on its head. Cricket was in danger of losing its popularity among the masses because it lacked credibility. But the storm was ridden and today, men like Modi have ensured cricket is watched and followed by more people. Cheers to that!
But like Indian cricket a decade ago, the tournament is losing credibility. Several viewed Modi's decision to tweet about the Kochi team's stakes as an act of transparency. Probably. But on Twitter rather than a press release or a post on the IPL official website?u00a0u00a0
It is not wrong to say that the IPL will give out only what they want to. For example, no one knows or rather no one is supposed to know how much teams paid for players like Kieron Pollard and Shane Bond who were bought in the tie-breaker. All we can presume is that they were fetched for anything in excess of $750,000, the pre-tie-break price. Only the successful bidders were privy to that information. So much for transparency!u00a0
Ravindra Jadeja got a one-year ban because he played silly and smart to look for a better deal at a time not permissible in the rules. The IPL czars were unforgiving on a kid who probably could have been punished in another way.
But if a strong message needed to be sent out, so be it. I tried to get hold of a copy of the rules and regulations that Jadeja had breached through official channels, but I was told it was not for public consumption.
So much for transparency, again! These murky times don't go well with the fabric of the sport. Transparency is nothing but clarity. Clarity is nothing but seeing clearly. If you don't sight the ball well while playing a shot, you can get seriously injured or be dismissed. The off-field drama is making the IPL look injured.
A mere bandage won't do, sirs!
