Over the past week or so, the BCCI's latest acts of dadagiri on two fronts (the IPL scheduling dilemma and their insistence on disallowing anyone smelling of ICL to come anywhere close to them and their players) are nothing short of disgraceful. In the latter case, the NZ media has very rightly taken the BCCI to task, something that the NZ Cricket Board cannot do for fear of offending the hand that feeds it. But by 'requesting' that Craig McMillan not be allowed to do commentary on Sky Sports during the test series (because of his ICL links), the BCCI surely have overshot their limits. Not sure what gives them the right to decide who should be working with a private TV channel, that too in a foreign land ? But as the saying goes: 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Once you have the power of money backing you, everything seems within your kingdom !!.
If this incident leaves a bad taste in the mouth, then the way the BCCI (and the IPL council and Mr. Modi in particular) is standing up to the government is nothing short of shocking. Of course, the terror attacks in Lahore precipitated this chain of events, since both parties knew of each other's schedules much before March 3rd. To be sure, the government should have raised the security concerns involved in having the IPL and elections simultaneously much before the Lahore attacks. Now it is being seen as having lost its nerve in the wake of what happened in Lahore, much to the delight of the barbarians behind all these acts of violence. But on the other hand, the way the IPL council is defiant on its stand of continuing with the IPL is not funny. Quite how Mr. Modi can proclaim that 'players security is our responsibility from the minute they land in India to the minute they leave', when the very agencies that he depends on to provide security are not willing to take any chances, is beyond comprehension. It is quite like declaring 'I am the safest in the world' when your body-guard is carrying a kid's toy gun. To add insult to injury, the BCCI's knowledgable badshaahs are now linking the IPL to national pride !!!!!. I admit I cannot take that any longer (though I have nothing against the IPL enjoyed the first season every bit) and having seen the drama for more than a week now, I seriously wish the Home Ministry should simply put its foot down and withdraw from providing security to the IPL. Once that is done, the IPL will be as good as dead, since even if Mr. Modi buys the services of the best private agencies using his dollars, they would simply not be equipped to handle terror attacks. And if the IPL is indeed dead (atleast for this year), I would not be shedding tears since the arrogance of a power-drunk cricket board cannot and should not be allowed to come in the way of national security.
This would also teach a good lesson to the 'travelling goons' of the BCCI !!!!
Cheers
Amit
If this incident leaves a bad taste in the mouth, then the way the BCCI (and the IPL council and Mr. Modi in particular) is standing up to the government is nothing short of shocking. Of course, the terror attacks in Lahore precipitated this chain of events, since both parties knew of each other's schedules much before March 3rd. To be sure, the government should have raised the security concerns involved in having the IPL and elections simultaneously much before the Lahore attacks. Now it is being seen as having lost its nerve in the wake of what happened in Lahore, much to the delight of the barbarians behind all these acts of violence. But on the other hand, the way the IPL council is defiant on its stand of continuing with the IPL is not funny. Quite how Mr. Modi can proclaim that 'players security is our responsibility from the minute they land in India to the minute they leave', when the very agencies that he depends on to provide security are not willing to take any chances, is beyond comprehension. It is quite like declaring 'I am the safest in the world' when your body-guard is carrying a kid's toy gun. To add insult to injury, the BCCI's knowledgable badshaahs are now linking the IPL to national pride !!!!!. I admit I cannot take that any longer (though I have nothing against the IPL enjoyed the first season every bit) and having seen the drama for more than a week now, I seriously wish the Home Ministry should simply put its foot down and withdraw from providing security to the IPL. Once that is done, the IPL will be as good as dead, since even if Mr. Modi buys the services of the best private agencies using his dollars, they would simply not be equipped to handle terror attacks. And if the IPL is indeed dead (atleast for this year), I would not be shedding tears since the arrogance of a power-drunk cricket board cannot and should not be allowed to come in the way of national security.
This would also teach a good lesson to the 'travelling goons' of the BCCI !!!!
Cheers
Amit
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1 comments:
Rightly said Gokhale. BCCI is becoming to big for its own good. There is no reason why GoI should take into account IPL schedules for planning its election. In the first place BCCI claims that its an independent organization and has nothing to do with GoI. Also anyone with any understanding of Indian democracy will know that the latest elections could have been held in India are in April-May. With Sharad Pawar at the helm affairs and his desire to be the PM of India, he should have known this. Probably he was expecting the govt to come down after communist withdraw their support and hence an early election in Dec-Jan.
And there is no reason for common people to root for IPL or for BCCI. The power it gets is from the people-they pay ticket prices, they pay for channels, for the products. And yet what they get in returns in terms of infrastructure is lousy at the best-both on grounds and TV coverage. Where else in world would you get ads even in between overs. Thank god BCCI doesn't hand out broadcasting rights for Wimbledon, it will show an ad between a long rally.
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