Every dark cloud, they say, has a silver lining; when it comes to Indian sport, however, the silver lining is nothing but a mirage. It is a trick played on our eye and will vanish when we blink.

      What else can you say when you see not only the country's most popular sport, but also its national game, embroiled in the vilest of controversies? How do you find something positive to hang on to, when you realise that the main source of this hara-kiri is politics?

      Let us begin with cricket: like always, Lalit Modi was patting himself after a job well done, when the clouds emerged. They started as a trickle, with the franchises simply holding on to their purse strings when the Pakistani players were put on the block.

      It was, without doubt, a reasonable gambit: why punt on a bunch of players who might not exactly be welcome in at least one city, if not the entire country? Why put their investments, if not the IPL itself, at risk when the government was not giving any clear signals?

      The clouds seemed to be quietly passing; but then, politics reared its hideous head: the government had no objection to the presence of our friends from across the border, declared the home minister. He turned a little spark into a fire by declaring that the IPL had done a disservice to cricket.

      Shah Rukh Khan, at the same time, gave a glimpse of the machinations behind the scenes: he revealed that there was a silent pact of a different kind among the franchisees; he even indicated that those who were keen on the Pakistani players were forced to back off. He turned the fire into an inferno by stating that the entire episode was humiliating.

      An already seething Pakistan became angrier: a team of parliamentarians cried off from their trip to India; another bunch of golfers too stayed home. There were calls to boycott the upcoming hockey World Cup as well. Clearly, the clouds had turned dark and they were ready to come down.

      The TOI, however, saw a hint of the silver lining, when it learnt that Deccan Chargers were on the verge of breaking the code; but the very next day, its team owner claimed that there were no plans to sign up Abdul Razzaq; Lalit Modi, as can be expected now, bad-mouthed Read more...

Bobilli Vijay Kumar IPL Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Deccan Chargers, IPL, Pakistan, Shah Rukh Khan, World Cup

If Lalit Modi and Dean Kino had added the word “International” to the Champions League T20, the tournament that is currently taking place in India could have replaced the now defunct ICL. Players from the now dead-and-buried ICL have scattered to different teams. Some ICLers, like Shane Bond, are back playing for club and country.

Meanwhile, the tournament that has been christened CLT20 is up and running. After the first edition was scrapped in the wake of 26/11, the CLT20-2009 has been in progress for almost a week now. While the cricket has been ok, CLT20 has certainly been providing air time to Lalit Modi and Bollywood!

Never mind the absence of Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, whose teams — respectively Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings — were not good enough to be featured in CLT20. This despite the largesse — out of the goodness of Lalit Modi’s heart — to accommodate a 3rd team from the Indian IPL in CLT20 (as opposed to only two teams from Australia and South Africa, the trinity of countries that co-started the CLT20 concept).

But no worries! This edition of CLT20 continues its links with Bollywood, thank you very much! I wouldn’t have known that this was a deliberate ploy till I watched an interview with Bipasha Basu who was at one of the early games; I forget which one! Was this yet another Bollywood Super Bod trying to buy a team, I wondered? Alas no! This was just another one of Lalit Modi’s plans to continue the link between Bollywood and masala cricket. What do they call it now? Co-branding?

T20 and Bollywood are made for each other. Each idiom features a lot of dancing, some colour, some great bodies, lots of song, a booty shake or two, celebreties coming out of your ears and nostrils, a few tears, skimpy-glitzy clothes, some acting, loads of emotion (throw in a slap or two!), plenty of rah-rah, LOADS of money and some talent on view — that is, if you can be bothered enough to pay close attention amidst the chaos, the din, the fake drama and the Read more…

Administrator Champions League T20 Australia, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Bollywood, Cape Cobras, Champions League T20, CLT20, Dean Kino, icl, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lalit Modi, Preity Zinta, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, South Africa

For a coach who wanted 4, or was it 11, captains for his team, it is no surprise that he couldn't settle on a single title for his book. John Buchanan's literary offering on cricket appears to have two titles on the cover. The Future of Cricket comes on top, The Rise of Twenty20, follows. That apart, the cover also has a strap line: When money talks, cricket listens. How big money, administrators are powering a new cricket world: an inside account. Phew! Can't this guy keep anything simple?

The book's juicy parts have already made national headlines. When you write adversely about Gavaskar, Harbhajan and Yuvraj, you are sure to grab eyeballs. And when you write lines such as in T20 "you have to be inventive, fearless. And I don't see those qualities as part of Sachin's make-up at this stage of his career. Sachin Tendulkar is still a great player, but not in this arena of T20," everybody is eager to find out what you say next.  Buchanan may have led KKR to the bottom but the book demonstrates his genius for marketing himself.

Reading the book one gets the impression that Buchanan is a mastermind at predicting the distant future. But he is not so adept at dealing with the present or the immediate future. He certainly didn't know that KKR will finish last in IPL2.  And that he will get the boot Read more...

Avijit Ghosh Australia Ajantha Mendis, Australian, Blogs.CMDN.com, Buchanan, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, damien martyn, Dravid, Duckworth-Lewis, Ganguly, IPL2, KKR, Kolkata Knight Riders, McGrath, Pietersen, Royal Challengers, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Stuart McGill, T20 World Cup, Warne