Feb 07 2009
The 2nd IPL Cricket Auction was a damp squib
They were all having a lot of fun out there in Goa. I am talking here about about that moneyspinner from the Indian Cricket Board that goes around under the name of IPL. The actual auction was not so exciting with the bidders having done their homework before arriving at the auction table. Everyone got what they wanted. So thats it. But there was a green garden meeting organized and aired by a prominent television channel and the same owners of the teams were seated in garden lawns of the most prestigious hotel in Goa. There they were - Nita Ambani, Juhi Chawla ( impersonating for Shah Rukh), Preity Zinta ( I did not know this pretty dame could talk intelligently), Shilpa Shetty ( of Richard Gere and Boycott fame), Vijay Mallya ( holy smoke, he owns an airline!) and of course Ravi Shastri ( how this mediocre ex-cricketer gets all the goodies, it still beats me). They were interviewed by two nondescript guys from the network. Of the 5 owners Nita Ambani and Mallya were there ( you can easily tell) just for the fun of it. Nita, as you know is the pretty wife of the richest Indian Indian in the world (her husband Mukesh bought her a super jet last year for more than 500 million dollars!). Bidding on auction worth hundreds of million dollars was like going to the market buying vegetables for the day for her. She is stinking rich. Mallya on the other hand is something which everyone in India wants badly - beer to drink! Even members of the Ram Sena ( Muthalik included, like his beer so much). Everyone drinks beer in India and there are more than a billion drinkers. So you can imagine and calculate the money he has to bid. The others were there just to add glamor. I believe the IPL cricket tournament begins this year on April 10th.
Here is the problem as it appears to me - these five were trying their best to hype up excitement along with that board man Lalit Modi, excitement that just really did not exist. They started this tamasha ( funfare) last year and are in it upto their necks whether they like it or not. The cricket board has already committed a staggering 1000 million dollars as expenses. If they did not continue the farce again this year, it will be a big hole in the pocket, a hole even the cricket board cannot afford or hope to refill soon. But what’s the point in having a tournament with mediocre players? As it is, they are all looking tired and jaded. What’s the big deal about Kevin Petersen? They kept repeating he was the most explosive batsman in the world today only to whip up the craving to watch the the tournament. Can he be compared with Vivian Richards at any time? Even a horse will laugh at this thought.
But the matches will go on for sure. People will watch having nothing else to do. But the glorious days of cricket are gone forever.
