15th May Update:
With Lalit Modi filing what by appearances looks like a ‘shut your mouth’ response to BCCI (Bullies Controlling Cricket in Indian) my post in December 2009 (below) seems more true that it appeared.
Did Modi make money? Maybe, Maybe not. As long as theres no proof, which the Fin Min is busy digging into even though India is facing debilitating inflation, no one can say. And then, who knows how much money is being made by others in the BCCI (Board of Corruption in India)? This is pure conjecture at this stage.
When 22 allegations are whittled down to 3 or 5 by the BCCI admitting that they are based on gossip, in and of itself it indicates a tearing hurry to “nail” LKM. And the key word is “hurry”.
The issue of a second Show Cause to LKM must have been driven by a realisation by BCCI that 22 will come down to 3 and so throw some more, hoping something may stick! If they needed 1 month to issues the second notice, why was the first issued at 1 am on the night of IPL closing ceremony?
The EVIDENCE” is now in front of us to conclude that the key aspect was HURRY.
Why? Was that the deal the Congress made with Pawar in return for something Pawar may have to hide? Was it to enter the BCCI wit congress’s own point man? We dont know. But what else can explain the HURRY?
Some talk of a deal made as an afterthought between LKM and BCCI, after the fact and when they realised they only wanted “Control”, the middle name of BCCI. Seems to me that if this were true, LKM anyway wanted to make sure he isnt a victim of dhoka (duplicity) later and placed 10,000+ documents on record. Time will tell.
The likely outcome is LKM will actually win the war, even if it takes a tortuous route. Will he be reinstated? Maybe, with a diluted structure. Maybe not. But BCCI has cut its nose to spite its face.
BCCI needs to be superseded with a better regulated board that PROMOTES cricket and not be focussed on CONTROL. This personal fiefdom of a small club ought to be broken, sooner rather than later. The Government (read Congress) will get a huge yield of public support if it did that instead of targeting individuals. But is the NCP too important for its Lok Sabha majority?
Alas, this 7th December 2009 post (below) makes a key idea that still holds: Success is dangerous in India in as far as public figures are concerned.
————- 7th Dec 2009——————-
Given the extra ordinary success IPL has achieved for Cricket, BCCI and MOST of all, Indian Cricketers who were in the fringes and no less the FINDS for The Indian Cricket team, Modi was a proven cricket administrator. Only the blindly biased can say otherwise. Now foreign players vie to come to India to play; Foreign Boards are trying hard to duplicate IPL’s success.
But what is Modi’s reward? The Sack at home!
Lalith Modi may have his faults. I don’t carry any brief for Modi, nor even the BCCI or IPL.
But for India’s sake, detach yourself and look at the results. When Modi proposed the IPL, everyone laughed at him. In fact the BIG bosses of BCCI would not have let him have the Commissioner’s chair if they had even suspected the IPL would be so big. IPL became big, thanks to Modi. Single handedly, he put the team together. Delivered.
If there was one liability Modi had, it was that the Media idolized him. The media got its TRPs and Modi the ire of his fellows – Indians, like you and me. Modi spoke straight & delivered, not a mainstay of Indians. Pure jealousy drove the politicians in his home base, the RCA to campaign against him. The only thing that binds this bunch of Indians is hatred and power mongering; it remains to be seen how Rajasthan cricket fares in the next 5 years.
Indians are like a basket of crabs. 1 Billion in the basket. Each one will pull the other down; no matter that it won’t help the other. Success is dangerous in India. That’s why Indians who migrate, do very well in their adopted country. That’s why we can build world class roads abroad, but not here; that’s why we never get a traffic ticket abroad but violate traffic rules with impunity in India. Then blame everyone else.
Only the Least Common Denominator works here.
We are Crabs.
Lalith Modi, my commiserations.