Politics behind Butt’s visit….

Ijaz Butt is in India to meet hsi good friend Sharad Pawar. And he also gave an interview to Barkha Dutt of NDTV. Nothing new did he say except that he hoped that India and Pakistan should resume playing cricket. Sharad Pawar, as ICC chief hoped it would happen, but as UPA minister he would know that wont happen till Madam G and MMS provide their approvals. And approval would happen when Mr 10 %, patron of Ijaz’s Butt would take some steps on….

Alright thats a different thread. Coming back to Butt in India, he said the same thing “Players innocent until proven guilty”.

Thats been the favorite punchline of Indian politicians caught in scams all this years. And there is a sparking similarity — none of the politicians here have been ever convicted by law and their cricketers havent been too. The politicians have lost the elections after the corruption charges were slapped on them, but never proved. Ditto for their cricketers. Madam G’s hubby and former PM is a great example. Charged of Bofors corruption, he was never convicted, but he lost 1989 elections and his life in 1991.

There is very much political significance to the meeting between Pawar and Butt.  As ICC chief Pawar would want ties to resume between 2 countries, but as a cabinet minister in the govt he wont have much power to execute the will to a ruling and resume the cricketing ties. Butt would also have requested Pawar to start the cricketing ties cos his board is bankrupt and now he wants to go SL way to have series with India.

Wont be a bad idea to have India – Pak series now as India would royally thump them and make favorable amends in the ODI and Test records 🙂

That can even make Ravinder Jaddukha look a great allrounder as even he can nab hapless mindless hopeless toothless brainless pennyless Pak batsmen.

In short, do not expect anything to happen on the 3 tainted Pak cricketers in near future. Money business all round is too strong to have pCB/ICC/ECB to take any action on this 3 cricketers. It should not be a surprise to see three back in action soon as did the previous 6 players (banned in March, playing in JUne). Even Butt would replace his mind to change his opinion on the 3 players then 😀

Power and Howards

Sharad Pawar is now ICC president after accumulating experience of 3 years as BCCI chief and 2 years as ICC vice president. And that qualifies him to be the ICC president. If that means an able candidate is not a sure shot conclusion.

That’s the grounds on which BCCI shot down John Howard’s candidature for ICC vice president post.  Addition to India, 5 other boards shot down Howard’s candidature. SL had its own reasons (just cos Howard had termed Murali a chuck, which is true) to block him and so did Zimbabwe (he refused to send Aussie team to Zim and as a result no Aussie team has travelled to Zim for a test series since 1999 and Zim team to Aus since 2003).

Sharad Pawar’s credibility is well known to everybody in India.  Failing crops, farmers suicide in his native state, mismanaged food economy and higher inflation rates for food items besides alleged stakes in failed Pune IPL bid and other IPL entities are some of the blots on his CV.

So Sharad Pawar being an ICC president is not a very enthusiastic piece of news for India, albeit a shameful one.

Malcolm Speed has following insights to offer on how Pawar attended ICC meetings:

“The man who is to be the next ICC president, Sharad Pawar, is the Minister for Agriculture in the Indian government – a serious full-time job, feeding 1.2 billion people. He is a good and fair man but he will be working part-time as ICC president and, take it from me, he knows little about cricket administration. I was present at several ICC board meetings he attended. ICC meetings generally last two days. Pawar attended for one hour and was then replaced by one of the Board of Control for Cricket in India apparatchiks. They were concerned that he was too busy and would be too reasonable.”

Not sure if that’s true or out of malice. But the flip flop of Pawar  clan over the IPL stake issues have put him in a very bad light.  He is confused so as which job to approach full time and part time. Whether serving as federal minister or going as ICC president or serving his own and his family’s vested interests in ventures like IPL.  He is a man chosen to do the job just out of vote bank politics and John Howard was rejected just cos BCCI did not want to upset Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka for its future vote bank politics.  Nobody cares about Pakistan and if the man is quizzed why he opposed Howard, the man would make up a lame issue and then do a u-turn over it.

So if Howard was rejected for ICC post for some reasons, then same reasons and additional ones apply for rejecting Sharad Pawar as ICC president, but that wont happen. For next 2 years the ICC members would need to engage translators and language therapists to understand what Pawar is mumbling in the meetings.

Who knows even his daughter Supriya Sule could attend ICC meetings as his proxy!!!

IPL Cleanup begins

Lalit Modi being disbanded out of IPL is just a first step to clean the alleged mess thats gripped IPL.  Another step probably could be to terminate the telecast rights which has a set of rumors of felicitation fees being paid to WSG from MSM (or vice versa).  80 million dollars of bribe or commission. How much pie was distributed to the middlemen including Mr Modi himself needs to be find out.

Whats more the IPL parties could be terminated too alongside kicking out the Bollywood and glamour quotient including the likes of Mandira Bedi.  Its being said that MTv forced players to participate in IPL Nights to ensure high glam quotient. So if thats shown the door too, the  game of cricket would be in focus rather than the sundry models and useless DJs making fun of player fitness.

The ongoing tax probe is not much optimistic as its being used by the government settle terms with the opposition and NCP. (Sharad Pawar is NCP chief, most influential in cricket in the country). Modi is alleged to be linked with Vasundhra Raje, ex Rajasthan CM (from BJP). So if taxmen find something in the probe, Cong managers wont leave any stone unturned to malign or unsettle the cricket in the country.

Later on Twiteroor would be restored, thats also a possibility.

Manohar has questioned if Shilpa Shetty and her mister are real stakeholders of RR. If he is true then its even more good. We would be spared her fake smile and her presence on the dugouts.

The IPL on field action might have ended but the off field action is far from being over. Political vendettas from madam and Pranab babu aided by quiet support from MMS,  ICC president elect being cornered and murkier details being leaked out are going to be order of the day.

Ugly spat bw Modi and Twiterrooor

The ongoing tussle between Modi and Twiterroor just indicates how fragile the egos of top managers are. Twiteroor is scared that his nexus with a socialite would be exposed to the world. Modi is scared that his supremacy in IPL biz would be grabbed by the minister.

Minister mentored few biz people to form an unholy and unethical group to bid for IPL team for a state whose best known cricketer is Sreesanth. And in lieu of that mentorment Twiterror is asking for a free equity for supposedly soon to be wife or smbody else socialite from Dubai.

He also asked Modi not to ask stakeholders of Rondavu sports.

Twiterror is not new to controversy. He is at max a cattle class minister who has no regard or sensitivity for the damn post he holds. He now wants to be getting into cricket biz in a bid to stamp his authority over game of cricket in Kerala. Not surprising if he becomes chief of KCA or whatever cricket association state has.  The UN under secretary is finding tough to cope with the work atmosphere of country and is an open embarrasment to Indian government and its people.

Its all bloody ugly game of money and corrupted power. As long as he has Madam’s support and Modi has Pawar support this ugly game in public domain is going to get longer. Its also an excuse for Cong to flex muscles over ICC president to be Mr Sharad Pawar. Not long ago PC had flexed his power over SP by kicking out IPL to SA….

Politics behind IPL.

Is it the real reason that the government was unable to provide the security to the IPL ? Or it is something different. Let me probe:

Here are few things to ponder.

1. Lalit Modi has just lost the RCA elections to the state government nominee. Not that it would affect his power and stature in the BCCI and IPL. But for sure some petitions and court cases would come up against him. And they have come up. Its a puppet who rules the state government in Rajasthan.

2. Mr P Chidambaram, the honorable Home minister, the only shining star of this useless government has decided to up the ante on IPL by publicly discouraging it. I have been vocal on this. He has created an impression that India is an unsafe state to play cricket in. And we have been crippled by cross border terrorism. Rather than saying that come what may we wont let it affect our country and iPL, he went ahead and said I am a useless minister. Cannot provide security to the IPL. So does he feel that the 11/26 masters wont be listening / reading his statements and laughing ? God forbid if this public ugly row might create another opportunity for them.

3. The UPA state governments ruled out security, more shamelessly the maharashtra DGP. Assholes. They were caught napping during 11/26. And now they are just using IPL as an excuse to hide their monumental failure. Sad to see cricket being victimised in a state which is hostile, intolerant and ridiculously known to have its own anthem and agenda.

4. And the most horrendous intention of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She is the most powerful political person in the country. The PM, VP and Prez are her puppets. Long back in 1999, mr Sharad Pawar had sabotaged the plans of Mrs Gandhi to be PM by citing her foreign origin as a show stopper. Unfortunately Mr Pawar got his way. After that Mr Pawar was kicked out. He formed another regional party and now he harbors the ambitions of being a PM in ruling UPA govt in the upcoming elections, something which Mrs Gandhi would never allow. He is BCCI macho man. Hurting him was the motive. And IPL was the biggest chance for Sonia and company to hurt Mr Pawar. She was successful. Point to note here is, the PM didnt speak a bit on this. All talking was done by Mr Bong and PC, the Anna.

5. MP, Guj, HP governments gave go ahead to IPL in their states. This states are ruled by the BJP, the principal opposition party and a power hopeful in this elections.

Now the question is will Pakistan government headed by Mr 10% allow its players to play in IPL, now that security wont be an issue. This is another fact that his own millitary and intelligence wing over which he has no control plotted 11/26 and 3/3. And thanks to this useless Indian government, the world now knows that Indian homeland is unsafe to play cricket in. Amazing isnt it.

Vote politics man. IPL is not kicked out for the lack of security,but for the vote politics. The very same reason for no action on 11/26 terrorists, the 08 serial blasts in different parts of country accused, the 7/11 accused and of course the 01 Parliament attack accused.

Sick sick !!

BCCI blunders!!

BCCI blunders on 2 counts in last few days :

1) In allowing Dhoni and few team members to play in an inconsequential game of an useless minister’s function. This minister happens to be close to Mr Pawar, the ex BCCI chief. Now why does BCCI have to allow the captain to play for a local side in the midst of an international series…Just to keep ex boss happy and keep the egos of this minister on high. What if Dhoni and team couldn’t have gone ? For sure he would have cried those outsider battles and stuff like that as he is usually doing this days on the ongoing regional troubles.

2) In another guffup related to Dhoni, BCCI has requested ECB to put the Ahmedabad test by a day. Now why on earth has that to happen ? Is franchise more important than country and it’s a goddamn Test match. Dhoni is the skipper now in all 3 forms of game for INDIA and not CSK. Even if he is jaded or tired, then he gotta skip the Champions League and play the test series. I am afraid to say that now he wont have a luxury to skip a Test series at the expense of an ODI or T20 series. And if plans to do that, then he better give up the Test captaincy. BCCI has got it wrong. England should say no. Let BCCI suffer once more for its ridiculous jibes.

Aussie Tour, BD Defection to ICL and Munaf Patel to Baroda

With the unfortunate and condemnable (i guess thats too little a word) blasts in the capital city of the country, the Aussie tour might run in trouble and we could see the typical antics from the Oz and then their enemies Poms to follow. There are already reports emnating from Ozland about the security apprehensions in the country and it might happen that the tour could be scrapped.

Unfortunately the venues Aussies play in India are the cities which were hit by the terror blasts. Tour games happen in Hyderabad and Jaipur. The first Test happens in Bangalore and Delhi hosts 3rd Test.

Not the right forum to say but I strongly feel that the “government” (if any) headed by the Italian blonde babe and her puppets should come out strongly on the home grown breed of terrorists. Having said that if wishes were horses, then we would have been a better country than what we are now.

Meanwhile BD players are on line to sneak into ICL many of which are current players who played last in Australia in addition to the discards like Bashar and all. Frankly who bothers if BD play IPL or ICL or international cricket. If this defaction happens, its good for international cricket and a bit bad for Mahela Jaywardhena s men. They wont get free bunch of wkts for the cheat and Mendis. Ian Chappell writes a very good write up on place of BD in international cricket here.

Munaf Patel moves to Baroda from Maharashtra in Ranji trophy. I hope the lanky bowler makes up for his renewed vigor for international cricket in his new team and improves on his work ethic. If he maintains good form in international cricket, Baroda might miss him in Ranji games.

BCCI must do whatever to ensure that Oz tour is not scrapped. And the chief has a major say in the government affairs as he is also a minister in bunch of Union jokers 🙂