IPL 3, off d field!!!

Every human endeavor has as its ingredients, a few basic and crude human emotions and adjectives, take anything.

They are Awe, Jealousy, Ego, Selfishness, Greed, Love, Power, Passion, Joy, Industriousness, Forgetfulness Corruptness and Forgiveness. The final taste of the curry though depends on the proportion of the different "masalas" present in it, every time you try to cook it. And of course, yummy to one may be inedible to another.

IPL could not have been any different.

This curry's delight to a cricket loving nation,  with changing lifestyles and mindsets, was undoubtedly guaranteed even at the inception of the event. India's Love and Passion for anything and everything related to cricket is no new thing, and so the fastest version of cricket, you may call it, Cricket 3.0, the T20, found its adopted home as India. Initially cooked by the Industriousness of S Chandra of Zee, the ICL was dumped into asylum by the Power and Ego of BCCI. When it comes to cricket, BCCI's Awe and Power are felt by everyone and everywhere and not just in India. ICL could not have survived more, that was for sure.

BCCI sited the opportunity in a Selfish manner and decided, it was time for it to launch it's own league of cricket, the Indian Premier League, sorry, the DLF Indian Premier League. BCCI has always been flooded with old blood and this new format was anything but old. Chance was given to Lalit Modi to use his flair, flamboyance and youthfulness to nurse this baby, in "jee- hazoori" of BCCI. Modi won the first round, by creating the whole event with so much of Love, Passion, Industriousness and much longsighted vision than his eyes look capable of, that no one at BCCI really cared about the whats and hows. Greed was their only, lovely darling and in fact it still is. They have had become the Billion dollar Club of Cricket of India.Other cricket clubs around the world were suddenly awestruck and jealous, by this show of brutal money Power by their once, "third-world-country" cousin BCCI. But, they could hardly do anything, as their players continued to override local preferences for the IPL ones, humanly so. Who could avoid the lure of playing for the 2nd highest paying league in the world, move away you UEFA, EPL and all.

IPL was turning out to be a heady mix of all sorts of booze in one shot, Instant - fame, money, glamor, TRPs, market share, eroticism, etc. and of course Competitive Cricket, for it's stakeholders - the IPL franchisees, the BCCI, the Lalit Modi, the marketers and sponsors, the broadcasters, the players, the state cricket boards, the TV news and other entertainment channels, the previously unheard bird called, "Cheerleaders", the struggling and under skilled TV artists, the coaches and commentators and forgive me if I have missed a few others. The cricket FAN was served the most delicious curry and this Joy was his only wish.

I strongly believe that the way IPL has been created as a brand, is really a great achievement by any global sporting standards and it would hurt any fan of cricket, if IPL loses anything from here, because of this whole Mahabharat of Insiders Personal League. Lalit Modi should really be acknowledged for this effort of his and it's outcome.

But, then comes the theory of means and ends. Both needs to be taken care off and none should be hanged for the sake of the other. And, this whole commotion broke lose with a little attempt of either showing love to his love candy Sunanda or to flex his muscle and show some newly acquired political Power in India by the ever suave and UNique diplomat, Shashi Tharoor or either as a mix of both of them.
This whisper of power songs suddenly lead to a volcanic eruption that was much thicker, darker and heavier than the Iceland one. Suddenly, off the field cricket was being played in closed power rooms, on twitter pages, in breaking news bars and innumerous talk shows hosted by the hype breathing anchors and almost everywhere, where cricket had never been played before.
Suddenly, everyone's focus was only on the means, after being focused only on the ends till now -

News Channels found a way of trying to break the TRP barrier of even the IPL broadcaster, Satmax, itself. They had found a typical twisting, turning and dark script of a racy thriller, where even they were allowed to tweak the script. Wow what a great usurp by the news channels! They must have crossed their ad revenues targets for a month in a single week. WOW!

Other Cricket Controllers ie. that caste of the cricket administrators and controllers who have been sidelined by the egoistic and flamboyant, Modi style of control and execution of the IPL story. They all were skin in skin with the Modi and never cared of the whats and the hows till now, silently enjoying the IPL booze with a sip of jealousy and greed. Their time had arrived. Now it was their chance to deliver a googly. No one took side with Modi, just no one, even his patriarch, Pawar was suddenly powerless.The IPL bakra has been found and it was time for him to be bowled over.

Govt and Political Parties too came to the party. Singh's return from a critical visit of US, from the Nuclear Summit was in no way a point to be thought off, forget discussing it. Every party, is some or the other way is related to controlling cricket across India, through different state cricket boards. BCCI is the ultimate mecca for the same, the final melting point for all the leaders with a flamboyant and stylish soul. Parliament sessions were all playing IPL and had nothing to deliberate upon. Tharoor got, what many wanted and waited to give him, ever since he joined their circus as a blue eyed hero. Many including Laloo, even suggested to nationalize cricket and IPL and rightly so, to get his son included in any playing XI. And, as a very Indian way of working, plethora of committees have already been formed since then to look into the IPL.

I have never written anything so long and so much in detail and even now I am thinking that a lot more can be written. But, no; why even I, am trying to make something out of IPL apart from being a follower and fan of Sachin and KKR? Let me leave it now...no no..let me ramble a bit more.

Chirayu Amin, the Glycodin wala cricket controller has been made the new IPL Commissioner and the real wala has been suspended until proven not guilty. IT raids formality is still going on, probably just like the secret IT investigations, which government claims to be nearly 6-month old now, without yielding any result and holding any one accountable. Instant action though, has been taken on the cheer leading dances and after match parties, such things are not meant to be displayed in public I guess but in close confines and for a few selected ones.

Everyone of us are going through the tumult of questions and outcomes of all things in IPL. But, what exactly will happen, should be any one's guess. The IPL would go on, which it should, but probably in new wine cases concealing the old Modi wine, the way it should not. Transparency has never been an Indian thing and expect it no sooner to be one.

And above all else, we as true Indians, are the masters of the art of Forgiveness and Forgetfulness, brewed by our Amnesia, as truly mentioned by Santosh Desai in his book, "Mother Pious Lady", will soon forget all this.

All of those mentioned above would be again talking about the IPL, the season 4, with two more teams and with much more fervor. The party shall go on.

Waiting for IPL 4 and another Sachin Season and some luck for KKR!!!