The hotly-debated issue of the water wasted over the cricket pitch in Mumbai has now been settled by the Bombay High Court’s ruling that all IPL matches after April 30 should be shifted out of Maharashtra.

At the outset, I am as anguished as anyone by the fate of the farmers in the drought stricken areas of Maharashtra. Only a complete moron wouldn’t be. Having said that, let’s give the decision to move the matches out of Mumbai some perspective. It is so easy for news channels to seize the opportunity to launch a high decibel programme excoriating all and sundry for being insensitive to the plight of the poor farmers (“why not send the water treated by the RWITC to Latur” thundered one anchor if memory serves me right). Or more dramatically, calling upon the likes of Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Vengsarkar and Manjrekar to comment on the subject.