The Indian Paisa League - A Story of Greed

Much is being talked about the IPL, let us call it Indian Paisa League instead of the Indian Premier League as all the ongoing media talk is about money, power and corruption, nothing to do with cricket.

I have no clue what happens behind those closed doors but just for fun, let us try to imagine what would have happened: The two failed bidders (or at least one of the two) would have paid some large "facilitation money" to Lalit in advance for getting an IPL team. Now, Lalit needs to return this or get him a team - all his equation has gone in for a toss due to some last minute disruption by someone from somewhere in Kerala. Lalit tries hard to cough up enough from this new team for the loss but the Kochi boys have already paid their due share to the pseud mallu (by transferring enough to his so-called female friend).

The all-powerful IPL supremo cannot tolerate any of this encroachment and starts pelting stones but forgot he himself was in a glass house. The highly educated pseud Mallu faces the brunt and loses the ministership but in the meantime, raising unanswered questions on Lalit, IPL, BCCI, Pawar, Patel and god only knows who all....followed by all the IT raids (was Income tax office sleeping for so long), the undeclared Mauritius accounts, the kick-backs and all else you can find on any TV.

So, what is going to happen next? Skeletons are falling from every closet. Someone needs to die on the other side, after all there cannot be casualties on only one side in a battle, so who better than Lalit Modi, the man who started it all. He needs to go, no doubt about it....but is he the only one who took all of it home, common sense says you need to share the booty in every loot. I guess every top official in BCCI (the so-called charitable society registered in Tamil Nadu) takes a share of the pie.

The big question is what is the way forward?

Why should BCCI eat away all the money it makes in the name of cricket and national pride? It should ideally be made a publicly listed enterprise controlled by Government of India (like the PSUs). Enhanced transparency and accountability would bring more professionalism to the sport. Also, it should be made to share a part of the surplus with Ministry of Sports for development of other sports in the country. As a nation, we should try to utilize this money to prepare ourselves better for sports and may be this country of a billion can devote more resources to make a better mark at forums like Olympics.