Glamour & Ladies in IPL Auction

Diamond shining, Gucci flashing Bollywood heroines walked with pomp and show into the Indian Premier Leauge (IPL) auction venue. Preity Zinta, Juhi Chawla and Shilpa Shetty are the star attractions in Goa. Along with the beauty ladies industrialists paraded their wealth. Blackberrys, Bentleys, Mercs and no doubt unstoppable flow of money brought IPL once again into the limelight. In this game war superstition was not staying back. Preity Zinta wore her lucky red every time she came to the bidding process. Raj Kundra sponsored his girl friend Shilpa the bid amount as valentine’s day gift. All those entered for auction were cross fingered and waiting for the luck at the end.

Defeating the popular expectation that this year 20-20 cricket show’s player hunting auction will be a flop, IPL surpassed last year’s target. In a single day it made $ 8 million worth business. Cash strap King Fisher chairman Vijay Mallaya paid $1.55m for Kevin Pietersen. This selective showering of money by Mallaya mocks his claim that King Fisher is seriously crushed by recession.

Team Chennai
Adrew Flintoff (1.55m)
Thilan Thushara (1,40,000)
George Bailey (50,000)

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Kevin Pietersen (1.55m)
Jesse Ryder (160,000)

Mumbai Indians
J.P. Duminy (950,000)
Kyle Mills (1,50,000)
Mohd Ashraful (75,000)

Kolkata Knight Riders
M. Mortaza (600,000)

Team Jaipur
Shaun Tait (375,000)
T Henderson (650,000)

Delhi Daredevils
Owalis Shah (275,000)
P. Colingwood (275,000)

Team Mohali
Ravi Bopara (450,000)
Jerome Taylor (150,000)

Team Hyderabad
Fidel Edwards (150,000)
Dwayne Smith (150,000)
All figures in US$

The spenders
Rajasthan $1.25m out of $1.87m
Chennai $1.6m out of $2m
Mumbai $1.17m out of $1.76m
Kolkata 650,000 out of $1.21m
Punjab 600,000 out of $1.4m
Hyderabad 250,000 out of $1.9m
Delhi 550,000 out of $1.45m

In the last one year of its origin IPL has glamourised and totally commercialized cricketing in the country. Adding entertainment to the game the league is spinning dollars in revenue. One has to wait and watch how far it is going to improve the cricket quality and inspire youth of India become best cricketers. IPL should focus its attention in other games to make India a formidable player in the world.

Passport to Represent India in Sports

Controversy and Indian sports are inseparable. There is rarely unanimity in steering sports to the successful end. Those who occupy the powerful positions in India’s sports are amateurs. In most of the cases they are full time politicians keeping sports as part time money spinner and whole time publicity seeking business. Their vested interests rule the roost rather than the national interest or sport person’s welfare. The latest controversy raked in by the Union Sport Minister M.S. Gill is allowing only Indian passport holders to represent India in the international games. One has to fathom the real interests of the sports minister in this issue. In the short period of less than a year M.S.Gill has become party to many controversial decisions. Calling off the scheduled India Pakistan cricket matches is another issue which gave heavy diplomatic setbacks.

In a country of 140 crore people only one person in the last sixty years was able to garner a gold medal in the Olympic Games. Even in that cherished victory there was a failed internal sabotage. Abhinav Bhindra who won gold medal in the shooting event leaked to the media that his rifle was tampered minutes before the event. He held an Indian responsible for this sabotage. God only knows how many our own sabotages in the past had prevented Indians from the victory joy. In such cases how many talented Indians like to live in the country? Politics and sabotage starts from the day one. It is extremely difficult to survive in these circumstances. Due to the hostile environment many of our capable sportspersons leave the country.

With the heavy presence of 20 million of Indian Diaspora around the world it is nothing but natural for them to exhibit India sentiments. They are bubbling with various ideas to help India to gain a strong image in every walk of the life in the world. Sports is one among those many interests among the Indian Diaspora. Young Indians in America, Europe, Australia, and other continents are ready to represent India in the international sports. Of course they were representing India in the past and brought glories. Vijay and Prakash Amartarajs, Neha and Shikha Oberois gave momentous tennis to India.

To santise the Indian sports a sustained sincerity and will is required. First of all it should be depoliticized. All the politicians in the sports administration should step down immediately. The sports minister should be sportive not political. A result oriented sports administration should not rake controversies like only the Indian passport holders should represent India in the international games. The timing is totally wrong. When India is suffering from multiple wounds in the sports, it is totally unexpected controversy from the sports ministry. Any sensible and victory loving sports administration would not raise these kinds of issues. Those who love victories go every mile to grab the gold. Unfortunately we have people who are not keen to see gold and silvers in the international arena. They are more than happy to send big contingents and spent huge amount of money without any result. So raising the Indian passport holders only should represent India is an issue raked at the wrong time.

A national sports policy with time bound deliverables should be in place at the earliest. Along with the government efforts private participation should be encouraged. Except in cricket there is less or no interest among the private business houses in encouraging sports. After all they are keen to bet on the popular horse. The Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian Cricket League (ICL) cultures should come into every game. The private entrepreneurs should set up coaching academies in every nook and cranny of the country. A substantial amount of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds should go to sports development. They can play a pivotal role in turning the public excitement towards non cricket sports and games.

In view of the maximum controversies the sports ministry should avoid untimely decisions like only Indian passport holders for the international sports for the moment. One needs to wait for the pragmatic sports policy rather than political potshots to see the Indian sports light of the day.