The IPL mess is the story of Indian sport
Suresh Menon writes in dreamcricket.com that the IPL mess has proven that while the players and the game are bound by laws, there are no checks and balances in place for officialdom, until things begin to go wrong
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
Suresh Menon writes in dreamcricket.com that the IPL mess has proven that while the players and the game are bound by laws, there are no checks and balances in place for officialdom, until things begin to go wrong. At which point everyone looks for a scapegoat.
Rules apply to the players (‘Thou shalt not try to better your lot’ as in the case of Ravindra Jadeja), laws to the game (leg before, size of the bat etc), but neither rules nor laws nor regulations seem to apply to officialdom. Till things go wrong, that is, and then everybody looks for a scapegoat who can absorb everybody’s sins. This is not merely the story of the IPL or indeed of the cricket board; it is the story of Indian sport.
Ultimately, in India, all questions of import are settled politically. Business quarrels, even those involving siblings find political parties line up behind an individual. Like in the case of the Ambanis. Likewise with the media houses which often invite politicians to settle disputes. This is reminiscent of the Cold War days when any international dispute segued into a US versus Soviet Union clash.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo