IPL Bashing!

Yesterday the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) scrapped two of the Indian Premier League franchises for irregularities. This mammoth task was possible only because of the irresistible urge to keep Lalit Modi out of cricket business.

There are many reactions--mostly from the investing business tycoons who cried most foul. Like Vijay Mallya, the liquor baron, who said investors should be respected. Well, why the investors want live human beings to put their money on nowadays!

Seeing the reactions I thought I would also react!

I am not at all happy with the decision! Why only two teams--namely Rajashtan Royals and Kings Eleven Punjab--have been scrapped? Why not scrap all of them? If all the teams were scrapped the IPL tournament itself would have been scrapped! And, that would have been a great service for the future of the beautiful game of cricket!

Save cricket!

Australia vs. India: The Giants Vote For Test Cricket!

What a nail biting finish! What a match! And, Team India won it too!

A suspense packed cricket test is not a rare phenomenon as myopic people think being constantly hammered by the propagators of the short or shortest forms of cricket. You see, cricket commentators or experts cannot be believed nowadays! Because they are hopelessly caught in the web of Boards, Brands and Bucks! What they say belongs to a particular moment and you forget it next. If they had written the obituary of Test Cricket on numerous occasions they had compulsions to do so!

Anyway, a classic game of cricket with ups and downs, unpredictable twists and turns, a collection of bad umpiring decisions and almost unbearable suspense on the last day today, October 5, 2010, Mohali . The first test of Ind-Aus Series in India.

Australia won the toss and naturally elected to bat because on Indian pitches the last day is always supposed to be heaven for spinners and nightmarish for batsmen. Aus went on smoothly, had a slump midway and then fought back to get 428, almost a winning total. India started in good earnest and looked to get a sizeable lead. But Aus cut it short and enjoyed a tiny lead of 23 runs. The match was set up tantalizingly with last two days to go.

Second innings, Aussies raced on looking good for a big target. But Indian bowlers fought gloriously to get them all-out for 192.  So, Team India needed 216 runs to win with ample time left.

But on the evening of the fourth day India lost four key wickets and…hoping against hope for Indian crowds.

On the last day today India at 124/8, the match was nearly gone. But an unlikely batting hero Ishant Sarma dug himself in with Very Very Special Laxman and added 81 runs. Then a bad decision again and the last Indian batsman was in with 11 runs to go! The ultimate climax set in and India finally won by 1 wicket!

Say Hurray for Test Cricket!

The Ayodhya File!

The suspense was more unbearable than in an Ind-Pak one day international cricket match. The wait was agonizing fraught with apprehension. Some sources reported that millions of bucks exchanged hands on betting over the verdict!

Our newsroom, maybe many more all over India, was crowded with eager staff, and editors trying to get the details for the coming bulletin. There was din in the TV monitors and pin drop silence in the usually noisy newsroom. Nobody wanted to wait any longer. Out with it and end it all!

For over sixty years the Ayodhya Temple-Mosque issue continued unabated with the bloody riots in 1992-93--a languishing scar that anyone would ever be able to forget or forgive. Nobody wanted a repeat of that.

It started at the appointed 3.30pm and by 4.45pm bits and pieces were coming in. The announced websites refused to open all the time. At last, the three judge Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court delivered justice.

A verdict that could not afford to please or hurt any party too much.The three parties got three parts of the disputed site at Ayodhya. All the parties seemed to be accepting it, but two parties later announced decision to appeal in the Supreme Court.

The Indian Union and state governments' intense efforts to maintain peace paid off with no untoward incident reported from any quarters. The bubbly city of Mumbai wore a deserted look in the evening with empty streets, buses and railway stations. Only natural. Who could ever forget the killings, arson and bomb blasts in this very city, January-March, 1993.

Though litigation is bound to go on, let's hope that the Ayodhya File is finally closed.