Why get after IPL’s strategy breaks?
One wonders why there is so much of a hoopla over the now infamous “strategy breaks” that IPL boss Lalit Modi has introduced in IPL2.
We all know IPL is not about cricket. It is about making money on cricket; it is pure and simple business; it is showbiz and the Indian public has seen to it that it rocks despite such an unconventional dressing.
When the players were being auctioned for the first time in the history of the gentleman’s game last year, the outrage was all there, much like the one now around the strategy breaks in IPL Season Two. But it was soon swept away by the bursting stands, the national mania and the whopping amount of money Modi made on something as previously non-existent as club cricket in India.
With IPL2, and the great overseas leap that Modi and Inc decided to take in the face of a cussed Home Minister’s refusal to either secure or allow IPL in election time, Modi has put up a brave face but suffered a depleted pocket. Besides paying the franchisees for relocation, spending on quick mobilisation in foreign shores and also suffering huge stands depletion as compared to India, Modi had to do something to cut down on the losses.
In came the strategy breaks and the ad revenue through TV commercials. So what if the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist stood at the fence waiting for their boss to make enough to sustain a tournament? After all, it is this money spinner which would pay them their daily cake.
Think about it. If a format has provision to shorten the boundary line, go in for something as crazy but as exciting as a super over, drop a previous tie-break norm of bowl over without so much as a hint and reduce the number of overs to a single digit, why would a mere money-making break give rise to so much controversy?
My only objection to these so-called interruptions is Modi’s insistence on calling them “strategy breaks.” Had he been upfront enough to call a spade a spade and tell the world that this was a necessary commercial break the tournament would have to take because of recession and relocation losses, he would have been hailed the same way as he was when he snubbed the Indian establishment and announced grandly that he would hold IPL in SA if not in India. But even Modi wilts in the face of such brazen admissions and so we have a controversy at hand — which will die a natural death like those cases against our “foul-mouthed” poll campaigners and candidates which will drop dead as soon as the election gets over.
Spare the rod, please!
As our Foray cover story will tell you, we have a rogue teacher brigade at hand, a brigade that is killing, maiming, scaring and humiliating its students, well, at the drop of a question.
In the face of growing cases of near-fatal and fatal corporal punishments, there has been a debate on why India does not have a specific law to deal with such happenings, now that they have become fairly regular.
One reason is that our society has never had reason to ask for such a law. I remember how regular it was in my convent school to get rapped on the knuckles by our maths teacher, or have our ears pulled by our Sanskrit ma’am. Everyone would take it in their stride and parents would mostly side with the teacher if at all a child complained.
Not any more. Today, the teacher has become a rogue, the students have become more than provocative and parents largely negligent. Time for society to change.
We all know IPL is not about cricket. It is about making money on cricket; it is pure and simple business; it is showbiz and the Indian public has seen to it that it rocks despite such an unconventional dressing.
When the players were being auctioned for the first time in the history of the gentleman’s game last year, the outrage was all there, much like the one now around the strategy breaks in IPL Season Two. But it was soon swept away by the bursting stands, the national mania and the whopping amount of money Modi made on something as previously non-existent as club cricket in India.
With IPL2, and the great overseas leap that Modi and Inc decided to take in the face of a cussed Home Minister’s refusal to either secure or allow IPL in election time, Modi has put up a brave face but suffered a depleted pocket. Besides paying the franchisees for relocation, spending on quick mobilisation in foreign shores and also suffering huge stands depletion as compared to India, Modi had to do something to cut down on the losses.
In came the strategy breaks and the ad revenue through TV commercials. So what if the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist stood at the fence waiting for their boss to make enough to sustain a tournament? After all, it is this money spinner which would pay them their daily cake.
Think about it. If a format has provision to shorten the boundary line, go in for something as crazy but as exciting as a super over, drop a previous tie-break norm of bowl over without so much as a hint and reduce the number of overs to a single digit, why would a mere money-making break give rise to so much controversy?
My only objection to these so-called interruptions is Modi’s insistence on calling them “strategy breaks.” Had he been upfront enough to call a spade a spade and tell the world that this was a necessary commercial break the tournament would have to take because of recession and relocation losses, he would have been hailed the same way as he was when he snubbed the Indian establishment and announced grandly that he would hold IPL in SA if not in India. But even Modi wilts in the face of such brazen admissions and so we have a controversy at hand — which will die a natural death like those cases against our “foul-mouthed” poll campaigners and candidates which will drop dead as soon as the election gets over.
Spare the rod, please!
As our Foray cover story will tell you, we have a rogue teacher brigade at hand, a brigade that is killing, maiming, scaring and humiliating its students, well, at the drop of a question.
In the face of growing cases of near-fatal and fatal corporal punishments, there has been a debate on why India does not have a specific law to deal with such happenings, now that they have become fairly regular.
One reason is that our society has never had reason to ask for such a law. I remember how regular it was in my convent school to get rapped on the knuckles by our maths teacher, or have our ears pulled by our Sanskrit ma’am. Everyone would take it in their stride and parents would mostly side with the teacher if at all a child complained.
Not any more. Today, the teacher has become a rogue, the students have become more than provocative and parents largely negligent. Time for society to change.
Published April 26, 2009, Sunday Pioneer, http://www.dailypioneer.com/172040/Why-get-after-IPL’s-strategy-breaks.html
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