Cricket they say is a game of great uncertainties. No one would believe this more than people of two nations united by one tournament called the IPL. When it all began on 18^th of April, something told me that Royal Challengers will reach the final with Rajasthan Royals. While I had to get a lot of flack for not supporting according to me ‘hyped team’ of Deccan Chargers, I was sure they did not have the potential even to win this tourney.

Alas! The first sentence of this post proved right! But why did I not have the faith in Chargers? Well strictly personal opinion, but I still don’t see them as “MY HYDERBAD” team. All that aside, from number 8 to number one has been a story that I can put only in one single phrase… DREAM RUN.

From Hyderabad heroes being the champs of ICL 1 to Deccan being the last team of IPL 1, life for a Hyderabad cricket fan went one more full circle. As Gilly and boys prepare come back “home”, there is a buzz around the city. Go Chargers, Go Chargers, Go….go go go… is the new mantra.

To describe what I went through while the final match was on is the term “Khichdi of emotions”. Well mixed is the meaning of khichdi in the context. At one stage when chargers posted 143, it looked game over for them and for me who was sitting in between 500 odd chargers supporters gunning for RCB time to smile. As the rains lashed the city of Hyderabad, chargers in bullring were picking one after other Bangalore batsmen. And when the fourth ball of the 20^th over was bowled there was eruption. A massive one.

Following morning when I look back, I think both the teams did immensely well from being the bottom 2 to the top 2. And credit must be given to those “retired”, “old”, “unfit”, fellows who stamped their authority over the so called young man’s game. In fact if you look at the IPL 2 as a whole you will observe, ‘Young guys can give that energy to the team, but if you want to win you need a matured head’. So true when you see the list of performers this year. Big Matt Hayden, Little (!) Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, The Wall Dravid, Jumbo Kumble, all of these well past their 35s did fantastic job for their sides.

So what shall I say!! At the end all I can say is the chargers did hear the plea I made in one of my blog and did give us more. Victories that is.. So this time for the chargers…. ONE AND TWO AND THREE AND FOUR. DECCAN CHARGERS GAVE US MORE.

Saat ajubo se badhkar yeh prajatantra hai bhai re!

 – Baba Satya Narayan Mourya

(The cat has taken the dog away and the lion is grazing the cows! Really the Democracy is above the Seven Wonders of the World)

What is the need for someone like me to call Democracy in India a wonder? If you ponder over this heading for a minute or two before reading further, you might get 10 reasons of your own to believe so. I have made an observation which goes a little further than the so called “common man” might want to think sometimes. Imagine the following scenario:

Disclaimer: The following paragraphs feature an imaginary story and therefore bear no resemblance with any situation in real life.

This is a story of Mohammed D’Souza who belongs to a minority community in Warangal town of Andhra. Read in his words.

I am a first time voter and am very enthusiastic about being able to make a contribution to government formation this time around. I have always been a fan of the MIM which operates in Hyderabad, but cant vote for them as they do not have any base in Warangal. So I choose to vote for the TDP (Telugu Desam Party) for their development record, and also for the fact that TDP is not going with BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) which is a communal party according to me which also has promised the separate state which I am against. My family has always been voting for congress but I choose the TDP. The common fact though is that both me and my family wants to avoid BJP, and it’s easy as well because BJP has practically no base in AP.

As the voting day nears I am in for a shock. TDP has tied up with TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) who wants a separate state, not something that I wanted, and the Left which is believed to be anti development in more than one sense! I gave a lot of thought to the situation and still decided to stay with the TDP because of Mr. Naidu and his development plans.

As the list of candidates is out for Warangal, I am shell-shocked! The TDP is not contesting the Warangal seat at all!! As part of their alliance deal, the seat is left for a candidate of TRS, whom I never liked. Oh and what? Mr. Naidu is in town campaigning for that person. I listened to Mr. Naidu and thought; “Well, by voting for this TRS person I am anyhow going to benefit Mr. Naidu, so let me take his word and do it”.

Come the polling day and I voted for TRS!! Not my original plan though. I satisfied myself thinking that I voted for the Great Chandrababu Naidu! Five more phases to go in India and I was already thinking of Naidu as the CM. But there seems to be no end to surprises. TRS breaks away from the “Grand Alliance” and joins the NDA (National Democratic Front, led by the BJP) at the centre. Oh God! My vote suddenly has been transferred from Mr. Naidu to Mr. Advani. Surprise Surprise!! Mr. KCR convinces Mr. Naidu to support the NDA at the centre! So even the ideology has changed and I am now a supporter of “Communal Forces” that I never wanted to be!!! And yeah, with congress sweeping the polls both at the state and the centre, I have no moral right to expect them to work for me. Lord, the Great Indian Democracy!!!

End of Disclaimer.

I know this is imaginary, but it could happen one day in India. This was just an attempt to bring to your attention the impact of the alliance politics on a common man. The post below has the solution to this grave problem. Yeah you guessed it right, the solution is according to me and I may be wrong. Your comments are always welcome on it.

Impossible!

That was the first word I heard when I presented the idea of a two party presidential form of Democracy to a friend. But when I sit down and think of what is happening in the country with more that 100 parties with those many agendas and 4 coalitions at the centre and countless at the state level, chaos is the only word that comes to mind.

Horse Trading, Conditional Supports, Stalling of development, multiple ideologies working in different directions, money laundering and what not. A coalition government has been and seemed to have been involved in all this and much more. If a government gets elected on its manifesto and forms a coalition, there is no guarantee it will abide the same. Common Minimum Programs are more of vote bank politics and less of development agenda. Everyone should be happy! A good mantra if applied to a common man but a bad shastra if applied to political parties.

Prajatantra me neta janta ka sevak kahelata hai, janata ka man janata ko raja kahkar bahelata hai,

Par chunav ke baad yahan sab kuch ulta ho jata hai, sevak raja ka sab dhan lekar champat ho jata hai,

Sevak ke hai aish desh me raja bhookha soye re!

– Baba Satya Narayan Mourya

Compare this, when a company is formed, the promoters first appoint a CEO and then give him the responsibility to choose his team and give the results they want with accountability on his own shoulders. And this where the promoters choose a team of 100 managers and then ask them to choose their own CEO!! Do you think the managers discharge fair duties when they know that the CEO they chose is their own man? Will the promoter have the same faith in the CEO? Will the CEO be as accountable as in the first case? To my mind such a CEO will more be a union leader and less a Profit Maker.

The promoters are the People of our country, The CEO is the Prime Minister and the team is his cabinet. The system we follow is the second one. And what follows that is seen by this country for over 6 decades now. The prime ministers have been more accountable to their parties, allies, cabinets, corporates etc, and the least accountable to the people of India!

And the fun part is that the so called all powerful voter never gets to choose the CEO (Prime Minister). He merely chooses a manager of his area. Oh forget the idea of declaring the prime ministerial candidates well before the elections!! They change faster than a chameleon.

Now that I have a strong preface in place, let me count the advantages of the other side. The first big thing in a Presidential form of government is that I CHOOSE WHO LEADS THE COUNTRY DIRECTLY. The centre and the state all should go to the elections simultaneously and the party at the centre should also rule ALL THE STATES. This can happen only in a two party system.  Accountability will be the highest in this case with no centre leader blaming the opposing party in the state and vice versa. With only two options in place there will be no hung houses for ever! So goodbye Horse Trading and False promises and Common Minimum Programs. The voter should be allowed to choose from top to bottom that is the PM, the CM, MLA and MP in one single ballot.

Impossible!

Did you just say that? I know it is difficult, but there is nothing which is not possible. And the politicians of our country will not bring about this change because the ATM function is all but lost in this form of government. So the people have to do something about it. I am still trying to find a good way to do the same. Do you have any suggestion to make?

Let’s hope the following lines are never re-written by another poet who is hurt!

Kursi maayi jisne paayi seva ka dekar nara, jhute, chappal, gehun, topeyn, shakkar khayi aur chaara,

Nazar jamao vahin nazar me aajate ghotale hain, ghotalon ki jaanch me usse bhi bhari ghotalen hain,

– Baba Satya Narayan Mourya

There may have been more than thousand experiments that would have made a common man go “WOW” and then were dead within no time. But there are some real good ones that see the light of the day and then go on to make a difference in the life of thousands. Indian Cricket League, which started as an experiment, or as an alternative to the mainstream cricket in India, has now made it long enough to see the light of a second season. For once this is a proof enough for the popularity of this so called rebel league.

Since the last time a ball was bowled in the ICL, there have been a lot of changes in the cricket fraternity in general and people’s attitude towards ICL in particular. T20 cricket has taken over from other forms of cricket so much so that the poor ODI format has suffered like anything. A lot of national teams have practically let their players represent T20 leagues than appear for national duty. This says a lot about what the global fraternity thinks of the game’s latest format. ICL which until a quarter back was deemed only for players who do not want to play anything apart from ICL (because they won’t be allowed to by the ICC), is now in quite a better stage.

The Arjuna Ranatunga led BCCSL has now changed its stance towards the ICL players and will allow them to play in their domestic league. Though this applies only to a handful of Sri Lankan’s playing in the ICL, it actually is as important as Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon. And that this decision of BCCSL may not have pleased their counterparts in the BCCI, it certainly comes as a huge boost for the team led by the Haryana Hurricane, our own Kapil paaji.

With IPL having paved the path for marketing trends in T20 cricket, I am sure ICL will not be far behind. With more prize money this year and three cricket grounds with them, the league is sure to go places, or rather more places than it went last time around.

And yes, as I write this awaiting the first ball of season two, one thing is for sure. Ambati Rayudu and Ibrahim Khaleel are now known to ten times the number people that knew them before the first ball of the last season was bowled. Indeed a great achievement for someone who dared to go against the BCCI. As the fresh season begins, I sincerely hope good things happen to the ICL and my favourite team Hyderabad Heroes repeats history to lend a smile to the faces of the locals who have been dejected by the much hyped “Deccan Chargers”.

Monday, 2nd June 2008 (it was supposed to be 1^st June but the whole thing ended close to morning), saw the end of an amazingly well fought match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Superkings marking the end of Indian Premier League. The whole of India must have been glued to their TV sets to watch the epic end. Since then I have read hoards of articles and heard unending talk shows as to what IPL meant to India and its role in blossoming India’s future in cricket. Most of them forget one thing. There would not have been any IPL if the ICL was not born. I personally think IPL owes a lot, and more to Mr. Chandra.

There have been comparisons between the two leagues and the IPL has won hands down in all. Be it the TRP’s, or revenues for the teams, crowd support, star appeal or just the way the tournament has been conducted. The IPL has overtaken the ICL in all those departments. But if you are someone who likes to know how cricket is benefited overall, read on.

Thanks to the maximum 4 rule of IPL, the Indian players got a chance to play in the tourney. Unknown faces from across the country showcased their skills on a very large platform. There were in all 86 Indian players who were given an opportunity to be a part of the teams. These players had never represented the country. I am not counting the ones who had. Of these 86 players a huge bunch of which I don’t have a count of only warmed the benches. But, there were 12 players who got the opportunity and also made it count. The players who changed their destinies with IPL were: Ravindra Jadeja, Manpreet Gony, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Amit Mishra, Siddharth Trivedi, Shikhar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Ashok Dinda, Dhaval Kulkarni and Pragyan Ojha.

Of these only Pragyan Ohja was the lone player who got selected in the Indian team. Yes, Yousuf did get selected, but that was on the cards even before the IPL, and also that he had represented the country in T20 World Cup. So for me the numbers that are important are 86, 12 and 1, Number of players who were in, the ones who performed and the one who made it to the national side in that order.

The ICL on the other hand was a neglected baby compared to the IPL. But then they were not far behind in the numbers that matter. Yes, they had less Ad revenues, leave alone ads they had less revenues overall. But the ICL offered a platform to 79 young cricketers of this country who would have not seen a crowd more than 500 in their life had it not been for the ICL. They all performed out of their skins to ensure they were noticed. The ultimate reward was a blue uniform for 16 of them. Though the uniform did not carry the BCCI logo, it would certainly have been a matter of great pride for the following 16: Rajagopal Satish, Abbas Ali, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abu Nacheem, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu, Ganapathi Vignesh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Love Ablish, Ravi Raj Patil, Rohan Gavaskar, Stuart Binny, Syed Mohammed, T. Sudhindra, TP. Singh and V. Sarvanan. The only player in the team who had previously known how it feels like in the blue uniform was Thiru Kumaran.

Whatever happens next. Whether IPL becomes the only form of cricket, killing Test and Onedayers, or whether everyone in the world has their own league. The facts are in front of you. I am someone who watches and admires Test cricket and I will continue to do so. But if these formats can produce 5 players every year who can bat for 4 hours without getting out, and 5 players who can bowl 20 overs in a day with steadiness, rest assured I will be the happiest cricket fan on the planet.

Thank goodness… it is finally over. Well, that’s what each and every Hyderabadi present at the Visaka Cricket Ground felt at about 11:30pm on 27th may. The very troubled run of IPL’s Hyderabad representation called Deccan Chargers got over with playing cricket this season. Yes, as usual they lost one more, and there I had a new slogan courtesy two friends of mine. It goes like… One and Two and Three and Four… Deccan Chargers are No more… While the first half is patented to my pen pal (keyboard pal would be apt for this age), Sunny Khandelwal, another friend of mine Robin Cornelius, who works for the Indian Multinational, added the latter half describing the true emotion a cricket fan in Hyderabad went through that night. While we shrugged it off saying a bad season, 12 losses out of 14 attempts was not as easy as a Hyderabadi light lelo yarron, for people who were a part of it. The fact that Adam ‘Churchie’ Glichrist actually apologized to the cheering crowd talks about how the guys in the dressing room must have felt.

I am not an analyst to tell you the real reasons behind the loss. But for what I understand about the game and also for what I have seen from other teams in the IPL, I can say just one thing. It’s not about how much you spend (Mumbai for example), it’s not about how much you strategize (Kolkata with Buchanan), it’s also not about how many stars you have in your side (Deccan), it’s only about how passionate you are about the game, it’s about how much you can give to the game on the field and it’s about how desperately you want to win. Rajasthan Royals is the biggest example. They did not have the money of Mumbai, Strategy of Kolkata and Stardom of Deccan, they are on the top of the table just because of sheer passion and commitment and the will to win.

I am not saying the Chargers did not have these qualities, they sure did. The reason they did not win is that they couldn’t display them or action them when needed… on the field that is. If you were on the ground for the last match, and were present till the last ball, you will vouch for the commitment the team showed in the last 10 overs. They made life so difficult for the Chennai Super Kings that they had to go till the last over to chase down a very modest 147. If that level of commitment was shown throughout the tourney, we would have seen the Chargers in the semi finals.

Ironically, it was the big four of the Indian cricket that was out of the IPL with the new brigade going ahead and battling for the honors. With Sachin, Saurav, Rahul and Laxman out, it’s a battle between Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sehwag and the tough nut Aussie Shane Warne. Is that a signal?? Is that a sign of things to come?? I have no answer today.

As a Hyderabadi who loves cricket and hates business in cricket, I still have my loyalties with Hyderabad Heroes. I also hope the next season gets more local flavor to the tourney and let us witness our own Hyderabadi stars battling out under the Deccan Chargers banner. So long for DC I wish I hear this again… One and Two and three and four, Deccan Chargers give us more….. Victories that is.

One and Two and Three and Four, Deccan Chargers Give us more… As the voice of Sunny Khandelwal (I think it was him… not too sure though) rocked the Visakha Cricket Stadium (now called the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium thanks to the rulers of our nation), standing on the third floor of the Shivlal Yadav Pavilion, wearing a pink colored access card, I was wondering how much more to expect from this “Technically the Best Team in the IPL”? The loss at Kolkata was fresh in my mind. Though the newspaper run by the franchisee of Deccan Chargers screamed and shouted that it was the pitch and the lights and the umpires that did us in at Kolkata, I was sure that the KnightRiders batted on the same strip. A loss after all was a loss and had to be faced.

As the Deccan Chargers (I will call them DC now… The franchisee will be really happy with that), practiced in front of about 10,000 people in the stadium (the capacity is about 39000 and growing everyday… They are on an expansion spree), an hour before the game started everyone in the stadium including the guest singer Neeraj Sridhar of the Bombay Vikings, were confident that they will reduce the Delhi side to dust within three hours and everyone in Hyderabad will go home happy. And when Adam Gilchrist struck one that landed in the stands on the midwicket boundary off the modern McGrath, Mohammed Asif, people thought they were on the brink of realizing their dream of seeing a DC win. What followed was a continuation of the Kolkata failure. Gilly played on one from Asif soon after that marvelous shot and the one drop skipper Laxman had his timber thrown to winds by one that came back (!), from Asif. I was recollecting my childhood when we used to measure the distance the stump traveled after being hit. Laxman’s would have certainly gone about 8 stump lengths.

It then continued the same way with people like Symmo and Shahid out. Rohit Sharma took Farveez Maharoof for a ride of his life and the poor fellow never knew where to bowl to the Indian T20 specialist. 26 runs in one over meant DC would cross the 100 mark which looked out of sight at the 10 over juncture. They did though and did well to end up at 142. But that was not a great score even after getting rid of the dangerous Gautam “Gauti” Gambhir for next to nothing. The butcher from Nazafgarh, Virendra Sehwag and a very steady Shikhar Dhawan ensured no damage was done thereafter and saw their side home with more that 33% of the overs remaining. The notable innings came from Sehwag (naturally) who scored a near hundred and gave Symonds a good run for his money. 646464 is not a fancy phone number in rural India, but the runs scored of the six balls that he bowled. The crowd had already begun their journey back home even before people who came in late could settle down.

A loss for the home team and with 2 losses in as many matches they were just above the Punjab team of Ness Wadia (yes, I forgot her because she anyhow does not have any role to play) at number 7. That was not where the guyz wanted to be when they started. A day’s off and Shane Keith Warne was in town leading a very cheap and inexperienced Rajasthan Royals team. With one win and a loss they were in a far better position than the DC. I was in no mood to be at the stadium and therefore choose to buy myself the best seat to watch cricket for Free, at home, in front of the TV.

When the news of Venugopal Rao being dropped and DC batting first was broken, I wasn’t too excited to see young Kalyan Krishna, who I had seen bowling really well in the Deodhar Trophy about a month ago, in the team. I thought he was very inexperienced to rub shoulders with the bigwigs of world cricket. But them I am not the skipper of DC, VVS is, so his decision was more important. I got kind of a shock when Laxman himself walked in along with Adam Gilchrist. Why was Boom Boom Afridi in the team??? To play second fiddle to people like Symonds and Sharma? I couldn’t digest that as well.

Anyways, Laxman hit some pretty blows before he saw a Pathan (Not Irfan… His bro, Yousuf was this) from Baroda being given the ball by Shane Warne. Everyone in the stadium would have thought Warne’s gone mad. But it had its effects immediately. Pathan removed Gilchrist and Afridi in one over. Symmo was in again and his side was in trouble. Then Laxman had to fall… he did. Though Symmo and Rohit gave stability and runs to the DC innings, I was getting bored and wanted to sleep. Well I didn’t for the love of cricket though. And it was paid off well. Symonds came up with the fastest century in IPL and it was awesome to see him clear the fence with ease. 214 to win and DC were looking good to register their first points in the tourney.

But then the Blue Brigade of Marwaris (none of them is a marwari I guess) had other ideas. And again it was Pathan. While smith did some serious damage to the DC bowling as the opener, and also emerged the highest scorer of the innings, it was yousuf whose magic was there to be seen. And when both of them got out, it was Shane Warne, who did the real damage. No it was not with the ball this time around. With 17 off the last over needed and Afridi, Vaas and RP having finished their respective spells, Laxman chose Symonds over Ohja and Kalyan. A wise decision on paper. But Warne had other ideas. When he got strike from Pankaj Singh (remember the lanky fast bowler on Aussie Tour… Not Ishant Sharma man…) He smashed Symonds for a Four, Six and Six to finish DC. And yeah with three losses out of as many matches, it is now going to be a tough, or should I say a Very Tough road for DC. And for poor old Symmo, who is the second highest paid player in the IPL, figures of 6.5-0-101-0 in the tourney is not something he will feel good about when he goes back down under to join his team on the tour of Windies.

While the Symonds story ends here, the DC story doesn’t. They will have to play out of their skins to overcome the obstacles the three losses have created in their path to a triumph in the IPL. And for someone who compares things, I will certainly put together some interesting stats to see their record against my favorite team, the HYDERABAD Heroes. At last all I can say is one and two and three and four… Deccan Chargers don’t loose anymore.

Beloved son against the neglected (rebel!) one…this sounds like an apt description of the two newest babies of the grand old religion, which about half the world follows. Cricket has always been a game that has been very receptive to change though not immediately. The T20 version of cricket suddenly saw a burst of leagues in various parts of the world to counter arguably the most popular game that the world have ever seen… Soccer.

While the Alan Stanford backed Stanford T20 has grasped attention of the cricket crazy islands south of America, the ICL and IPL have born much to the amusement of the a billion people back home. The Stanford league has definitely helped the revival of cricket in the West Indies. The dying state of cricket stadiums with empty stands during test matches seems long gone. With black bats and white balls flying around the ground in front of huge screens, it is for sure that the T20 is here to stay.

Though the lucky facet of the windies is that the authorities that run the show have backed the league. The same though has not been the case in India. While Mr. Chandra has done a great job ensuring the much-ignored lot in India, the Ranji Players, gets what they deserve, it has not been taken well by the ever bullying, powerful BCCI. The birth of IPL to counter the ICL has been enough evidence of the same. But who will stand out eventually in the eyes of the common man? This is the question, which can be debated for hours together.

For once the ICL has more brand credibility than the IPL in my eyes. With two T20 tourneys, one 50 over tourney under their belt and the ICL World T20 awaiting its first ball as I write this, the ICL has proved that even when the strongest of them are against you, with will to succeed and honesty towards the game, you can achieve the impossible.

The last T20 tourney held in Panchkula and Hyderabad has drawn more than decent crowds and people have connected to the ever-popular never hyped cricketers from the domestic foray of cricket. If the scenes at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium when the Heroes won against the Badshahs are anything to go by, the ICL has arrived in India and no Modi-Pawar-Shah trio can uproot it.

Technically speaking, there has been a tremendous improvement in the standard of the game since ICL was launched. While the inexperience of the organizers was there to be seen in the first tournament the cricket was also of a mediocre quality. But come the second tournament everything just changed drastically. The grounds and the pitches looked far better. The quality of cricket being played also looked improved. So much so that the All Test Star Studded Lahore team was comprehensively beaten 2-0 in the finals by a pack of rebel youngsters from Hyderabad who would certainly have found it hard to stamp authority of any sorts on the Indian cricket scene had it not been for the ICL. Not even in his wildest dreams would Alfred ‘Freddie’ Absolom have imagined picking up 7 wickets in four overs to technically create a world record in the latest form of cricket. And for someone like Ibraheem Khaleel, it was just a dream to wear India colors. The dream has come true with him being selected in the ICL-India side. Though not backed the BCCI and the ICC, the Indian colors will still be a matter of great pride for the gloveman from Hyderabad.

Where does this leave the IPL though? Much has been talked, printed and telecasted about this favorite child of the BCCI even before it is born. Huge money has been spun over even before the first ball is bowled. The teams have franchisees with all their glaz-ma-traaz making me think that cricket can very well take a back seat. With decent number of stars in the IPL known for their off the field heroics, the tourney looks more like a great bollywood tamasha than a cricket tournament. No… I am not anti-IPL. But somehow apart from the great adverts nothing interests me. Will I cheer for Andrew “Troublemaker” Symonds when he plays for Hyderabad??? I’d better cheer Ibraheem Khaleel.

The end though looks very pleasing. I think this is pure imagination but I see the Indian selection committee choosing the Indian Test Team and they are fighting among each other to take players from the ICL as if they were players from the states they belong to. I think I am sleeping but then please…. I beg you… Please don’t wake me up…. God Bless Cricket

Well as the header suggests, I am sure you are wondering what PCB stands for? Well let me clear the air… If you think PCB is Printed Circuit Board which is used in electronic equipments ranging from mobile phones to computers, this is not about them. The abbreviation PCB here means the “Palaniappan Chidambaram Budget”. While some may call it a Pro-Voter budget and some others call it a divine gift to the nation, some also term it as a huge financial failure. Put together Mr. PC has overall done well to please the people who matter the most to his existence, the poor of this country.

Mr. PC was very sure of what he was doing. He must have got very clear instructions from the High Command that his budget would write the script for next five years of congress’ future. And he did exactly what the doctor (I wonder when she passed out her MBBS) ordered. But, pause for a while and think… Does the highly politicised budget of this country actually affect you?? Well if you are able to read this… IT DOESN’T.

Yes he increased the threshold limit for the Taxpayer. So what?? Did we not increase our earnings over the last year?? By the time we pay tax according to the new limits, either him or another finance minister would have announced another high profile pro-poor, pro-voter budget. And after all where does the government earn all its revenues from?? From those who were let off a whopping INR 6,000,000,000,000… Difficult to count the number is it?? That is INR 600 Billions. That is Rs. 600 out of every Indian’s pocket. Oh yes, I know the farmers are committing suicide… My fault??

The cars became cheap. Where is the road to drive them? The women will pay less tax. Where is the opportunity to earn…? Let alone paying tax. I will pay less tax… No I will pay the same tax because my salary has been increased thanks to the Bull Run in the economy market. And what did the guys who made the dream of India INC. come true get?? 5% extra tax on their short term gains. Where does that go? To more farmers who are committing suicide.

And the best catch out of this will come some days later. The farmers in the congress run states will get the major share of that whopping figure (I have no patience to write that again). How much money will go to Gujarat and Rajasthan? Good question to find an answer to. Those are opposition ruled states. They don’t get much.

The businessmen of this country have given about the same contribution to India’s growth that a farmer has. But this is one creed that has never got it due credit. The best entrepreneur award does not boost the economy. Sops do. But they are reserved for the illiterates and farmers and beggars and poor and other people who are classified in the “aam aadmi” category. Businessmen are rich and they only deserve to pay tax and more tax and more tax, until they become “aam aadmi”. Then they too will get the sops.

Who is at the fault? Mr. PC? No, not at all. He is doing the best he can do in the best interest of his party. The real culprits are us. Yes, you, me and all others who are sitting in their AC cabins. We did not go out in the burning sun in the summer of 2004 to cast our vote (I did, but one can only make that much difference). The ones who did are reaping the benefits. The BJP and specially the TDP government here in AP did all it could to lift people like me and you to greater heights. They facilitated the growth of today’s India Inc. And what happened? The people that they worked for preferred to stay indoors in the cosy environments of their offices and alas! THEY LOST!! Had the BJP at centre and TDP at the state level made the same efforts for the poor people, they would have been in power till today. But I would have not been writing this article because I wouldn’t afford a computer.

Now what is the way out? It’s not very difficult. The tax paying community of the country should put its head together and elect a government that works for them. It may even be the congress. But they should also be made to understand that we can uproot you if you do not work for us. And to prove that we have to do just that… Once… And only then will the real India Shining come true.

The juggernaut has started rolling. Soon you would see the Hyderabadis cheering for Aussies, the Delhites Cheering for Indians and the Mumbaikars cheering for Sri Lankans. Well this is not a dream. Welcome to the latest money spinner in sports. The Indian Premier League seems to be here to stay.

When Subhash Chandra, the visionary behind ICL (Indian Cricket League) the breakthrough cricket, would have thought about incepting something that was anti BCCI (!) as thought about by the BCCI themselves, not even in his wildest dreams would he have seen a 19 year old Delhi lad who was learning to bowl quick against the GOOD batsmen of the world, contracted for a whopping $950000. As the telecom users thanked Reliance Infocomm in 2003 for lowering the overall market prices in spite of them not having great services themselves, the cricket fraternity of the country should felicitate Mr. Chandra for having pioneered a revolution in cricket where the money goes to its deserving creator, The Players. Though ICL itself was not an out and out success, it at least made sure that the poor Ranji Trophy player who used to earn 5000 to 10000 per match and had to struggle to keep the ends meeting after his playing days, had a scope to make enough money to support him for life.

Everyone would agree that there is money in cricket. And when there is an opportunity to earn and that too legally, why not take it. I mean, if someone does not take a money making opportunity we will label him a fool instantly!! So that is one way the whole ICL, IPL story sounds pleasant. The lower rung cricketers are getting opportunities to look up and choose which, 5 years down the like seemed impossible. “If you want to play cricket, don’t take any panga with the BCCI” was the mantra every coach used to teach his wards apart from the customary batting stance and the bowling action.

So if IPL is giving opportunity to people and paying for the same why is there a hue and cry about how it can harm the game? Well personally, as someone who is a devotee of the game, I think they are not entirely wrong.

When Kerry Packer rolled out his then infamous and now historically famous World Series, the first thing happened was the clash between the authorities of cricket and his company. While BCCI has taken due care to please the akas of the cricket world, the ICC, there will be scope for spats and clashes. The bitterness will start the day when an IPL tournament clashes with the schedule of an international tour for the contracted player. Though the player will give his country the priority, there may be instances when the whole scenario turns bad because of the non-cricketing franchisees. Yes, the boards may understand the game and so do the players, but none of the franchisees do. So after paying hefty sums to buy the teams and the players, if absenteeism hurts them in the pocket, they will for sure react to it at cricket’s loss.

Apart from that, there also rises the question of whether or not the people prefer to watch such a cricket. Again, that seems to be of less importance because even if the crowds don’t gather at the venues, they will for sure want to see a good 20-20 match from the comforts of their lounges without paying anything. And that sounds like music to an advertiser. TV revenues have already broken the roof and now are heading skywards. So more money in store…

What then happens to the poor old Ranji trophy??? Now that is where the real problem is. Why would an Ishant Sharma play for Delhi at a meagre 1 lakh when he is getting 100 times more for playing for IPL? Though both Ranji Trophy and IPL have a common parent, I am sure the treatment would be very different. And this is the long term problem. Today we may enjoy the attention of the world, become famous as cricketers and retire with large sums of money. What will happen to the next generation who have been playing the Ranji Trophy without any serious competition, because all the good domestic players have already gone to the IPL? If Lalit Modi has an answer to this, then I think IPL will stay. If not the future does not look too good for the INDIAN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM, though it looks great for the current cricket teams.