IPL: LET US BE PATIENT

With the official leak-outs, charges, allegations, insinuations, media-trial etc in connection with the IPL during the last frenetic week, we seem to have been rendered somewhat off-balance. While recommending some patience in order to wait for the answers of the persons and groups which are facing enquiry, I would like to add my own mirch-masalas to the analysis of the situation.

The most striking aspect of the highest decibels raised is that they have come from thoroughly corrupt and discredited people as the public has reason to believe, such as Mulayam, Lalu and Mayawati. Nothing short of the pot calling the kettle black. These medieval minds having an electoral grip over their large caste-brethren in an outworn feudalistic manner, and still enjoying power thanks to the impotent judiciary, have little or no idea of economy, finance, international finance, markets etc. So, let us not be swayed by the dramatic horror marking their vituperations in the House. Pranabji seems an honest man and I think we should wait and not pre-judge such serious things.

Coming to the wrong doings of Praful Patel, surely, two planes have been diverted. Some inconvenience was caused to some dozens of passengers. Come on! It was mostly to ensure that the cricketers who have entertained us, crores in number, reached their destination on time. Let us forgive Praful. He has not taken bribes in hundreds of crores like the trinity earlier referred to. What about passing those team valuations to Tharoor? It was high impropriety. Let him confess to the impropriety so that we can forgive him as a smallish first offender. We could not easily forgive Shashi Tharoor as his case involved a colossal Rs.80 crores although that was not meant for him.

Let us come to Sharad Pawar. He is everywhere and is like the cat with nine lives. His son-in-law's share holdings and involvement with MSM raise our eye brows. Like water, money could also flow down and find a level field, passing through benami routes. But the ideal thing is not to pre-judge and wait for a thorough investigation.

Talking about BCCI is like examining a crocodile. Everything about it is wrong. It is too dangerous to go near! The Government of India gave it a tax-free status as a promoter of cricket ages ago when the BCCI was a harmless cat. Now, it is rolling in wealth, like the Ambanis, and where is the charity concept? In fact, the moment IPL became a part of BCCI, whatever charity aspect was there has simply withered away.

And it is most unscrupulous of the BCCI to have changed its Constitution in 2008 permitting clash of interests as in the case of N.Srinivasan. If there is a single and most grievous mistake that was ever made by BCCI in its history, perhaps it was this stupid and mindless amendment. Clash of interests is one of the first principles of jurisprudence. Perhaps this took place under Pawar's regime in the BCCI. As per Shashank Manohar, Pawar cleared the application of N.Srinivasan to bid for the Chennai team. This clearance is preposterous and together with the amendment, has opened a whole pandora's box of "insider-business". Pawar should explain all this and take the responsibilty.

What about the main culprit Lalit Modi? Let us find out whether his relatives brought in the money for the alleged three Teams or whether he put money in a benami way. Let the investigations reveal the truth and we have to wait for the result.

As regards the TV rights signed with MSM that allowed the BCCI/IPL to earn a whopping fee, though for ten years, of nearly 1.5 billion dollars, it seems that the earlier quotation was lower. To the extent that the BCCI/IPL benefited by the revision, we cannot have objections.Now, the spot-light is on the facilitation fee of 80 million dollars. This is a vast money but only about half a percent of the whole fees. Who was eligible to receive the facilitation fee is not clear although we know that WSG received it. If you ask me, Lalit Modi is perhaps worth this fee by a cheque for he has worked wonders with IPL like magic. He has toiled hard no doubt and the brand is his basically. Some of the Corporate honchos earn several dozen crores in terms of annual salaries and commissions. We should not forget this. The question then is whether Lalit Modi was liable to pay taxes on the facilitation fees. Let this be examined and cleared.When the Sholapur Rendezvous entity and Sunanda Pushkar could be eligible to receive astronomical sums as sweat equity, the facilitation fees would seem to pale into insignificance.

Now,were 27 players involved in match-fixing in South Africa? The number seems astronomical and foolish. Secondly, we must understand that the players are given nearly a crore or more every year as fees, and why would they be interested in playing badly and losing, for some alleged extra money? They will only lose their future selection and participation in the teams. The short T-20 version is very much luck-driven on any given day and it is unthinkable that any player who has a short bowling or batting term in a game will act for lure money! The teams belong to vigilant and competitive franchisees and I personally would believe that the story of likely match fixing by players is perhaps to fix Modi only.

As regards betting, frankly I have no idea whether you and I sitting in India can take part in international and internet betting in case international syndicates are operating. Would anyone clarify the legal position please? That said, one would think that the IPL Commissioner would be too busy arranging the matches to worry about betting. He should be rich enough not to care for betting profits. Anyway, let the enquiry reveal the facts of the case.

Lastly but of no least significance, it was Lalit Modi who has to blame himself for inviting the disgrace as he has done. Without his tweeting about Sunanda Pushkar, he would have been the happiest man in India today. But as they say, "Vinaasha Kaaley Vipareetha Buddhi"! We did not even mind all his night parties and the cheer girls. Now that he is in deep trouble, we take a high moral ground and condemn his cheer girls and his night parties. He certainly over-stretched himself with all these shows.

So, can we wait instead of pre-judging everything? In any case, Lalit Modi's fate in respect of IPL seems to be sealed.