IPL: Celebrating Cricket

On March 19th, Dinesh Kartik and Suresh Raina walked out at the Firoz Shah Kotla for a toss, as captains of two IPL teams. The sight was pretty pleasing to say the least. But it was second only to that of Jayasuriya and Tendulkar walking in to open the batting for Mumbai Indians. Any apprehensions as to how engaging would the IPL format turn out to be, were put to rest the day when this happened – Sanath and Sachin walking in as opening batsmen for the same team. Cheerleaders, live music, colour, pomp, glamour and extravagance – IPL was presented as a celebration of cricket and has lived up to be that way.

When two of the world’s most destructive opening batsmen are playing together, it makes for quite a sight, isn’t it? Although, I am sure that the bowlers of the opposite team will have a different opinion. And when this happened, I felt that all the hype and marketing buzz created around IPL was finally worth it. Now, picture this. Raina captaining the likes of Hayden, Murlitharan, Morkel and Kemp. On the other side, Kartik marshalling the likes of Dilshan, Sehwag, A B Diviliers and Dirk Nannes. Two young Indian players – one who has almost cemented his place in the Indian team but still has a lot to prove in the long run; and another, a much improved wicketkeeper-batsmen but has been in and out of the Indian team – getting this opportunity to wear the captain’s arm band and lead their sides. This augurs well not only for the future of Indian cricket, but for cricket as a whole.

What’s more, this format throws up a lot of intriguing mini-showdowns of its own – Gilchrist clobbering Shane Warne, Dhoni punishing Zaheer, Murlitharan bowling a wrong one to Jayasuriya, Steyn bowling a sharp one to Gibbs, Yusuf Pathan padding-up to Irfan Pathan – all this and more, in one sumptuous buffet of exciting slam-bam cricket. The format has also raised the levels of cricket by a few notches – sharp singles, breath taking catches and of course towering sixes have now become the norm, even in a fifty over match. A lot of young cricketers have thrown caution to the wind and lapped up the opportunities coming their way. Besides, one has witnessed innovations like free hit for a no-ball (over stepping) and commentators chatting up with players on the field in the thick of live action.

With all this, there is also a concern of too much of cricket and burnout; not all of which might be unsubstantiated. An India-Pakistan encounter doesn’t anymore generate the same kind of euphoria that it once used to. To that extent cricket sure has become a bit casual and an everyday affair. But this phenomenon is not limited to cricket alone. The glut and overexposure syndrome now spans all areas of our lives – from just one national TV channel to over a 100 to choose from now, at least 10 different makes of car to select from in a given category, from one phone connection in the entire block to almost everyone carrying a personal cell phone now. The pace of human race has increased exponentially and correspondingly the span of attention has reduced almost the same rate. Thus, this explosion of and in cricket, is inevitable.

So let’s put other things aside and enjoy this celebration of cricket. And while we are at it, let’s relish the run feast as the Matara marauder and the master blaster mercilessly beat up anyone who bowls at them!

Maya vs. Modi: A Tale of Two Celebrations

Behenji (Mayawati) recently celebrated 75th anniversary of Shri Kanshi Ram and 25 years of the formation of BSP by organizing a ‘maharally’. It is speculated that the ‘maharally’ cost the state exchequer a whopping 500 crores - more than the annual turnover of a mid sized company.

Behenji was also honoured by being garlanded a colossal garland strewn with currency notes of 1000 rupees. While the media and the opposition parties are pegging the worth of the garland to be anything around 3 to 5 crores, I would like to rewind just a little bit and draw behenji’s kind attention to the unfortunate incident a fortnight ago at Pratapgarh, where 65 innocent lives were lost to a stampede. Madam CM had then said that the state was under ‘acute financial constraints’ and hence would not be able to give compensation to the kin of the dead. Madam CM, if your garland indeed was having currency notes worth rupees 5 crores; I would kindly request you to pluck just a few of them. Even if the kin of dead is compensated with rupees 5 lakhs each, it would amount to rupees 3.25 crores and hence it would still leave out currency worth rupees 1.75 crores to be garlanded around your worthy neck. I sincerely hope that you are not put in great amount of botheration as I ask for this great personal compromise and sacrifice to your grandeur. I also hope that your party workers and other suckers in your administration would conjure up more of people’s hard earned tax money from the state exchequer to put yet another and bigger garland around your neck the next time, to compensate for this compromise that I am requesting you to do.

Cut to Gujarat and to a gentleman by the name of Shri Narendra Modi. Again, not too long ago a function was held in Gujarat that involved the CM of the state. It was an auction of various gifts and souvenirs that he receives at various functions. As many as 1,173 gift articles were auctioned generating an amount of Rs. 1.25 Crores, which would be spent on girl’s education in the state. There’s one more thing to Narendra Modi – he charges a certain sum of money if you want him to be a guest at your function or at your place i.e. any function which may not be directly related to the official business of the Government of Gujarat. Again, he donates all such money collected to the cause of girl’s education in the state.

What this throws up, is a contrast of not just the two political functionaries, but of two substantially different political and social cultures. I don’t even want to compare the road infrastructure or the power (electricity) situation in the two states, simply because you can not have a bout between a feather weight and a heavy weight. Gujarat is light years ahead of a state like UP on such indicators. Having seen and stayed in a city like Ahmedabad, one would be forced to wonder if a place like UP is a part of the same country.

However, I do want to debate and ponder over one thing - making mockery of democracy that this lady has got so used to. Mayawati to me in fact is a picture of the dysfunctions of a democratic system in a setup like India’s. She scoffs at the system that gets her into power. She takes the support of a democratic process only to act farcically feudal, once in power. Political vendettas, whimsical transfers and suspensions of officials, bad-mouthing the media and other politicians, sickeningly indulging in self-worshipping – Mayawati has stooped to all time new lows in Indian politics. The lady claims to be the messiah of the poor and dalits, but all she does in the name of governance and administration is build her own statues worth crores in public memorial parks. And the only thing that can happen to poor with such farce of a governance is that they would become poorer. This in turn leads to problems like out-migration and crime.

But the malady actually runs deeper. The poor and the uneducated elect people like Mayawati. And they continue to remain poor and uneducated due to such governance and policies, and hence would continue to bring to power people like her time and again. Thus, unless the basics of a civil society are in place, the edifice will continue to be wrecked by political rot at the top. India is mammoth and so are her problems. India’s social and cultural values are already in place, economy is doing good, although poverty continues to be one big problem; it is only the political set up that continues to disappoint. Hope the country manages to see much better, responsible, civilized and accountable polity in future.

(Image courtesy Khaleej Times and Google Images.)