Lalit Modi wins for now, but does the story end?

Shashi Tharoor had an impeccable record: belonging to and old family from Palghat, Kerala but born in London, educated in India and abroad, three decades of successful service with the UN, resigns that job to contest for the post of Secretary General of the UN but fails, back home in India scores an impressive win in the Parliamentary election from Trivandrum though his mother and relatives were against him joining politics, straightaway made Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

So far so good.

Shashi Tharoor was doing okay even though his style of operation was not exactly palatable to the old world politicians. But then he made the mistake of doing two things which Lalit Modi did not like. He sprang a surprise by bringing in a team for Kerala in the recent IPL auctions. Also, his Ministry granted visa to a South African model who Modi, according to reports, did not want to come to India.

Now, everybody knows who Modi is. Technically he is only the chairman of a sub-committee of the BCCI. But that is the India Premier League sub-committee and Modi is its sole effective boss. Even the BCCI does not seem to have any meaningful control over him.

Modi is a genius and he has proved that within two short years. Forgotten or buried were the negative reports about him on different fronts. He made powerful friends and became the number one name in the Indian Cricket officialdom. Nobody really bothered whether all the rules were being followed by the IPL.

When Shashi Tharoor did not toe the line, Modi was not happy. He disclosed the shareholding details of the Cochin team, which had not been done in the case of the other outfits, and stated that he had some doubts. Also, there was a woman’s name in it – Sunanda Pushkar. She was to get a portion of the equity in the sponsoring company of the Kerala team, for free. An explanation that came up was that the shares were in consideration for her services for 10 years. A rumor that Shashi Tharoor and this lady were planning to get married, suddenly caught on like wild fire.

Sweat equity thus became sweet equity and a shadow of doubt was cast on Shashi Tharoor. The BJP went into the attack with all guns firing, possibly without properly evaluating the consequences. It would appear that a major point was overlooked. They concentrated mainly on the Cochin team and Shashi Tharoor being sacked, not on the entire IPL spectrum. The Leftists were quick to join them.

The Prime Minister who was abroad returned to Delhi on Saturday and by Sunday evening ShashiTharoor handed over his resignation. That turned out to be a wet blanket. Suddenly there was no issue left for the BJP in this matter.

But the other opposition parties are not stopping with that. They are demanding an enquiry into all aspects of the IPL from its beginning. Of course, BJP too joined the demand. But the Congress was already on the job.

So, the story goes on.

Also see:

Kerala politics: Confused Comrades

Cricket: Board games and bucks – Rahul Dravid out!

Rahul Dravid would have seen it coming. Others too, who were alert enough (I was not one of those). In the retrospect it would seem that the indications of a move for Dravid’s ouster started when the pack of pundits opened up after the third Test against England at the Oval.

For the first time in the history of Indian cricket we saw a captain being criticized for the margin of victory on winning a Test series in England after a couple of decades. It sounded so absurd to me who has often seen the headlines ‘India goes down fighting’ (in almost all sports). Instead of congratulating the winning captain along with his team, a group of armchair critics went for Rahul Dravid’s jugular veins – he should have made England follow on, the wise men said.

What was the captain’s objective? To win the series or take even a remote risk of the series ending on an even note? If England following on managed to get even a small lead (they scored 369/6 in 110 overs in the 2^nd innings) and the Indian batsmen buckled on the fifth day pitch, what would the critics have said? In the second innings the Indians were 11/3 at one stage.

The verbal diarrhea continued on to the ODI series. The pundits quoted all kinds of reasons why Dravid should have elected to bat first in the 1^st match. The fact that in the none too distant past India had successfully chased targets 16 consecutive times was quietly overlooked. And no body asked how Dravid could have foreseen three of his batsmen getting themselves run out in the chase.

Do all these mean that there was a concerted effort to put pressure on Dravid? With the BCCI politics, Zonal equations and the money involved, anything is possible. It is not really performance that counts in Indian cricket. Take a look at the results achieved by three successive captains:

ODIs success rate: Dravid 56%, Ganguly 53.9%, Tendulkar 35.1%

Tests Win-loss ratio: Dravid W 8 –L 6, Ganguly W 21 – L 13, Tendulkar W 4 - L 9.

Dravid’s batting:

ODI: as Captain, AVG 42.19, as player 39.38, overall 40.05. Tests: as Captain 44.51, as player 60.12, overall 56.50.

Well, the figures speak better than words. But none of these matter in the murky world of Indian cricket. We have lost a decent and dignified captain with an astute cricketing mind. For the time being there is at least one consolation. I would like to quote a message that appeared on the famous Mumbai Marine Drive hoarding when JRD Tata stepped down as Air India Chairman, “TATA does not always mean goodbye”.

Dravid would continue to be available to play for India if the powers be deign to select him.

Ends.

Indebted to Deccan Chronicle for the statistics.

Also see:

When strong men cried...

Cricket in remote areas