Baba? Really.....

Consider the way baba Ramdev tried to put the government in a fix by deciding to take on the graft rhetoric at the Ram Lila ground in Delhi. I was bemused to say the least after coming to know of the steps taken by both the government as well as baba. Baba seems to have realised it very late that tackling a lion in its cage is not  the most prudent decision he had taken. Baha's PR experts would have told him before his drama unfolded at Ramlila ground that riding the graft bandwagon could help him reach the entire nation likewise.
Shouting the same black money stats as LK Advani did during the last general elections, Baba thought it would help garner popularity and general public support. Although he did garner a lot of support during the campaign, the civil society was unsure of Baba's intentions. The evidence of which came out after he was forced to move to his karma bhumi. Baba made absurd remarks about the Delhi police, going to the extent of saying that the Delhi police had planned to kill him during the clamp down at Ramlila grounds. Now any rational person with some grey matter would know how ridiculous the statement sounds. His statement though brings out one important fact about Baba. Baba is in no way a political person............

-Sunny Gusain

T-20 saga continues

Money Making Machine

The advent of yet another T-20 league, Sri Lanka Premier League, is an indicator of how things will move for cricket in the future. In the near future, one cannot deny the possibility of leagues taking precedence over international cricket. As is with any other business or sport in the world, cricket is being ruled by financial considerations and T-20 cricket leagues are a goldmine. BCCIs effort to build up a global cricket brand, IPL, has been digested well by all stakeholders of the game. In a small time span of 4 years, IPL’s brand value has gone from nil to $ 3.67 billion. To build up such an amazing brand value in 4 years would make any top corporate honcho proud. In the hope of emulating the success of the BCCI run Indian Premier League, other cricket boards around the globe have already started or are contemplating to start their own T-20 leagues. Whether they would succeed or not remains to be seen.

Cricket economics has grown by leaps and bounds since the advent of T-20 cricket and the future is certainly looking bright for global popularity of the sport. Cricket boards around the world will also hope to generate revenues which they would have only dreamt of before T-20 cricket came into the fore. Arguably, cricket leagues around the world will be the next future of cricket.

True?

The lack of transparency in IPL, or most other T-20 cricket leagues for that matter, is a matter of concern as it can compromise the integrity of the sport and drive away eyeballs from T-20 cricket. Allegations of match fixing (or spot fixing) in T-20 cricket is doing the rounds for quite some time now. To ensure that these leagues have transparency in their functioning as well as their decision making, it is imperative to follow the professional ethos and conduct followed by popular football leagues around the world. This would bode well for the popularity of the sport on a global scale as well as for the cricket boards around the world.

-Sunny Gusain

Osama- the ideology

Osama is not history

The killing of the world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, at Abbottabad, Pakistan entails the end of a Jihadist who single handedly made the US insane. As an old adage goes, “the real death is the death of ideology and not the physical form.” Considering that Osama is dead should not in any way mean that the ideology on which he thrived for so long is also dead. In fact as a large number of Muslims in the Middle East are prejudiced against the US, Osama’s death, if anything, would be seen as the death of a revolutionary who stood against the mighty US and its anti-Muslim ideology.  For many Muslims, Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization Osama headed, became a synonym for Muslim’s struggle against the western autocracy. Although most people were muted because of the US’s goliath like form, they silently admired the obstinate ways of Al Qaeda. Of course, the felony Osama committed by striking at the heart of US’s economic centre eventually brought him his death. But, as some analysts say, US Special Forces made a mistake by killing Osama and giving him a cold blooded death when he could have been captured alive and prosecuted as per the US terrorism laws.

Protests?

US could have been in a much better position to showcase itself as a true democracy and build on its moral authority over the Middle Eastern populace if it had captured Osama alive and given him a free and fair trial. Rather it has now given an opportunity to terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda to press Osama’s death as an agenda tool and perpetrate violence in the name of ideology for its own vested interests. Alienating the people who are prone to be influenced by Osama’s ideology will sooner or later be detrimental for the US and the world at large. Rather than celebrating Osama’s death and terming it as a good job done US should concentrate more on bringing the Muslims at large into confidence with its Middle-Eastern policies and thereby integrate them with the mainstream ideology of the world. Clear Understanding and deep introspection is the need of the hour to deal with the real enemy-the ideology.

-Sunny Gusain