Axe suspects around the game & not the game itself
Meenakshi Rao
In one sense, the ongoing IPL mess has been quite an education. For one, we now know everything about sweat equity; we know how money can be laundered, how tax havens operate and how the Government can be hoodwinked through a complex network of investments secretly channelised through suspect places by suspect means by seemingly above-board people.
We also know that a whole lot of public persons, across the spectrum of society — from the politician to the administrator to the Minister to the corporate — are in it together and the human network of IPL is as intricate and complex as its investments grid is said to be. Another home truth: They will all swim together but when it comes to sinking, there are no friends here.
Which brings us to Lalit Modi, the currently beleaguered IPL boss who has decided to go down fighting. No one can deny the fact that this man, singlehandedly, made a domestic league a worldwide phenomenon, brought in unimaginable sackfuls of money into the game, propelled it into an entirely different path of progress and well-being and turned India into an undisputed cricketing superpower with no one miles behind it and only global envy following it.
In that context, Modi can be considered quite an achiever. The fact of the matter is, Modi did all this right under the nose of the establishment, rather with the help of the establishment. The BCCI was always there with him and let him create an extra-constitutional body within the Board, the Government was silently seeing him spread the network for three long years, income tax authorities looked the other way as a matter of routine, the ED, the Ministers and the political parties were looking aimlessly when the money around IPL started sporting obscene flab. Some among these partook of it, others watched enviously and yet others waited for an opportunity to get into the lucrative network.
All would have continued to go the way it was and the entire system would have doted on turning the phenomenon of you-scratch-my-back-I-will-scratch-yours into a fine art. But Modi’s obese ego and Tharoor’s naivete got together to bore a hole into the bubble and things came tumbling down. One is sure both would be regretting the tweets, the spills, the spats and the ultimate showdown. Both would have learnt the value of the vow of silence and the benefits of secrecy.
But now that Tharoor’s head has been taken, the system will take Modi’s. For, the system is like a woman scorned — you alienate it and it shows you the power it has to bring you down, unless, of course, you know the art of placating it when the story has moved on!
In the middle of all this madness propelled by big money sleaze is that erstwhile gentlemen’s game which has since metamorphosed into a golden goose in the hands of all the above-mentioned people.
Unfortunately, and thanks to the power stride of Modi and others, the game has been put under the noose.
IPL is a great event which shouldn’t become a casualty of the mess surrounding it. The mess, of course needs to be cleared, but merely removing people or changing management committees is not the solution. It is important to insert accountability into any system, public or private, and to do so there has to be both political and public will to axe corruption.
But that’ll never happen because no one, including the politicians would want that. Remember the sluggishness of the Government in making any effort to seek information of secret Swiss accounts of any or everyone?
The point here is that those calling for a review are just as tainted as those whose blood they are baying for.
And, the sad truth is, India has over the years institutionalised corruption at all levels so singling out establishments, this time the IPL, in a piecemeal manner is as good as the next story the media will move on to. The cleansing needs to be more wholesome, cohesive, honest and universal.
Till then, if one Modi will go, another one will emerge — from the same system, the same place, the same people and the same environment. Of course, Modi should go if he has done even a fraction of what he is being accused of. But then, it should also be ensured that the fervour, the passion, the party, the glitz, the glamour and the chutzpah of IPL should not be axed alongside.
IPL is only three and a child should not be put to sleep because the parents might be suspect. People like Mulayam Singh Yadav may make irresponsible statements like we should stop paying attention to cricket totally because it is ruining other games, including hockey, our national game.
India has very few sporting arenas it can display with muscle and pride. Cricket is the flagship here. And flagships don’t have to pay for other vessels not performing well.
People love T20 cricket. They have no feelings for the Modis, the Tharoors, the Pawars, the Patels and the Manohars. So the casualty needs to be the people around the game and not the game itself.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, April 25, 2010
In one sense, the ongoing IPL mess has been quite an education. For one, we now know everything about sweat equity; we know how money can be laundered, how tax havens operate and how the Government can be hoodwinked through a complex network of investments secretly channelised through suspect places by suspect means by seemingly above-board people.
We also know that a whole lot of public persons, across the spectrum of society — from the politician to the administrator to the Minister to the corporate — are in it together and the human network of IPL is as intricate and complex as its investments grid is said to be. Another home truth: They will all swim together but when it comes to sinking, there are no friends here.
Which brings us to Lalit Modi, the currently beleaguered IPL boss who has decided to go down fighting. No one can deny the fact that this man, singlehandedly, made a domestic league a worldwide phenomenon, brought in unimaginable sackfuls of money into the game, propelled it into an entirely different path of progress and well-being and turned India into an undisputed cricketing superpower with no one miles behind it and only global envy following it.
In that context, Modi can be considered quite an achiever. The fact of the matter is, Modi did all this right under the nose of the establishment, rather with the help of the establishment. The BCCI was always there with him and let him create an extra-constitutional body within the Board, the Government was silently seeing him spread the network for three long years, income tax authorities looked the other way as a matter of routine, the ED, the Ministers and the political parties were looking aimlessly when the money around IPL started sporting obscene flab. Some among these partook of it, others watched enviously and yet others waited for an opportunity to get into the lucrative network.
All would have continued to go the way it was and the entire system would have doted on turning the phenomenon of you-scratch-my-back-I-will-scratch-yours into a fine art. But Modi’s obese ego and Tharoor’s naivete got together to bore a hole into the bubble and things came tumbling down. One is sure both would be regretting the tweets, the spills, the spats and the ultimate showdown. Both would have learnt the value of the vow of silence and the benefits of secrecy.
But now that Tharoor’s head has been taken, the system will take Modi’s. For, the system is like a woman scorned — you alienate it and it shows you the power it has to bring you down, unless, of course, you know the art of placating it when the story has moved on!
In the middle of all this madness propelled by big money sleaze is that erstwhile gentlemen’s game which has since metamorphosed into a golden goose in the hands of all the above-mentioned people.
Unfortunately, and thanks to the power stride of Modi and others, the game has been put under the noose.
IPL is a great event which shouldn’t become a casualty of the mess surrounding it. The mess, of course needs to be cleared, but merely removing people or changing management committees is not the solution. It is important to insert accountability into any system, public or private, and to do so there has to be both political and public will to axe corruption.
But that’ll never happen because no one, including the politicians would want that. Remember the sluggishness of the Government in making any effort to seek information of secret Swiss accounts of any or everyone?
The point here is that those calling for a review are just as tainted as those whose blood they are baying for.
And, the sad truth is, India has over the years institutionalised corruption at all levels so singling out establishments, this time the IPL, in a piecemeal manner is as good as the next story the media will move on to. The cleansing needs to be more wholesome, cohesive, honest and universal.
Till then, if one Modi will go, another one will emerge — from the same system, the same place, the same people and the same environment. Of course, Modi should go if he has done even a fraction of what he is being accused of. But then, it should also be ensured that the fervour, the passion, the party, the glitz, the glamour and the chutzpah of IPL should not be axed alongside.
IPL is only three and a child should not be put to sleep because the parents might be suspect. People like Mulayam Singh Yadav may make irresponsible statements like we should stop paying attention to cricket totally because it is ruining other games, including hockey, our national game.
India has very few sporting arenas it can display with muscle and pride. Cricket is the flagship here. And flagships don’t have to pay for other vessels not performing well.
People love T20 cricket. They have no feelings for the Modis, the Tharoors, the Pawars, the Patels and the Manohars. So the casualty needs to be the people around the game and not the game itself.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, April 25, 2010
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